Different orders for reading the books

In article <BC4C5F60.4D602%veganpower@optushome.com.au>, timananda
<veganpower.TakeThisOut@optushome.com.au> writes:

 >My order was the same as you, and I'd imagine would be the same for most
 >people. I think a lot of people would've been exposed to the Tolkien when
 >quite young. That would rule a lot of people out of reading the Silmarillion
 >first, and lending to The Hobbit being first, with LOTR being the logical
 >follow-on from that. It would be interesting to hear the breakdown not just
 >of the order read, but the age of the reader.

I have no idea when I first read The Hobbit myself, my mother started reading
it to my sister & I at such a young aga I can't remember ever not knowing the
story! I read LotR at 8, Sil at 11 & started UT & HoMe at 13.

ilweran
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I'm glad that Dave very much enjoyed reading Tolkien's work for the
first time and doing it in the internal chronological order of the
stories.

Personally, I'm quite happy that I did so in the more traditional
Hobbit/LotR/AoTB/Silm/UT/HoME/Bilbo's Last Song order. Of course this
was merely due to the publishing history of Tolkien's work. In this I
betray my age. I was born in 1966 and 'The Silmarillion' appeared
shortly before I read 'The Hobbit' - but a hardcover book was beyond
the budget of a 12-year-old and the libraries in southern Mississippi
weren't buying it yet (I did convince my mother to but 'Unfinished
Tales' for me as soon as I laid my eyes on it - with of course the
promise to repay her soon).

However, I have received immense pleasure over the years in noting
details such as the tidbits concerning Luthien & Beren in LoTR, and
later being able to read a good version of their story in 'The
Silmarillion', and finally to my lasting astonishment finding out
years later with the publication of 'The Lays of Beleriand' that
Tolkien had indeed written the exact lay referred to in LoTR - 'The
Lay of Leithian' (yes, there are great diferences between the later
two stories - but I like to put this down to human corruption of the
story in the immense amount of time between the 'occurence' of these
events and the present day; think of the difference between the
possible real-life war chieftain Arthur of the 5th century and the
version of Mallory with which we are so familiar).

There are many other instances like this which have made me happy over
the course of 25 years (which I hope will be perhaps a quarter of my
entire life - I plan on living to a ripe old hobbit's age). My latest
discovery was 'Bilbo's Last Song' last year. Though I am a great fan,
I do not ardently search out all news of the publication of further
bits from Tolkien but rather come across them serendipitously.

Which reminds me - I must make a note to myself to search for a copy
of 'Letters by Tolkien', which I have not read. Has someone already
compiled a list that tells which letters have bits concerning
Tolkien's mythos? Perhaps even published online somewhere? Or do they
all, in the main, concern Arda/Ambar?

Michael 'Elentirmo'