What books should I read next?

External Since: Jul 06, 2003 Posts: 1

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External Since: Jul 05, 2003 Posts: 37

k* said:
{snip}
> Very interesting! Now I at least have some recommendation. I will let
> you know if the script recommended me the right thing after I have read
> all those books in that order Smile

>
> If you are interested, here is the order that I got for myself from the
> script:
> -------
> Recommended Reading Order for Books about Middle-earth
> Books in the "History of Middle-earth" series are labeled by series
> order: [HoMe N] is the Nth book in the series.
>
> 1. The Hobbit
> 2. The Lord of the Rings ("LotR") (often published in three volumes:
> The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King)
> 3. The Appendices and Prologue of The Lord of the Rings
> 4. Unfinished Tales
> 5. The Silmarillion

Sounds good to me except that I would read the Silmarillion before you read
Unfinished Tales. The Sil was compiled by Tolkien's son Christopher out of
his notes and into a relatively coherent storyline (even though Tolkien's
notes themselves contradicted each other in many MANY places). As such, the
Sil is a pretty good read just by itself. Reading IT first would A) spoil a
lot of things in the Sil and B) be very confusing at times because it
assumes you already know what happened in the Sil.

> 6. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (Often most easily found as part of
> The Tolkien Reader (USA) or Tales from the Perilous Realm
> (Commonwealth), which both also contain quite a few of Tolkien's
> writings not related to Middle-earth.)

In case you don't already knot, this is a book of poetry, most of it rather
whimsical like the Hobbits' poetry in LotR but some of it is different.

> 7. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (ed. Humphrey Carpenter)

As implied by the title, this is a compilation of some of Tolkien's letters.
I haven't read it myself but people here occasionally quote usefull tidbits
of information from it...

{snip}
> 15. "On Fairy Stories", published in Tree and Leaf (Often most easily
> found as part of The Tolkien Reader (USA), which also contains "The
> Adventures of Tom Bombadil", or The Monsters and the Critics and Other
> Essays (Commonwealth), both of which also contain a number of Tolkien's
> writings not related to Middle-earth.)

Not really "set in Middle-earth", but is an essay "on fairy stories"
(imagine that!).

{snip}

The "History of Middle Earth" (which consists of 12 volumes, all of which I
snipped) is Christopher Tolkien's further efforts to share his father's
unpublished work with the fans. It contains many many different variations
of various texts, old rough drafts of LotR, and all sorts of odds and ends.
Heavily commented on by Christopher, but the difference between the writings
of the two Tolkien's is made very clearly throughout.

> 19. "Osanwe-kenta: `Enquiry into the Communication of Thought'"
> (Published in the Tolkien linguistics journal Vinyar Tengwar #39 (July
> 1998), which is available for $2 at the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship
> website)

Hmm, I haven't heard of this myself. I read the description on the website.
Does anyone have any comments on it?

||// // "The narrative ends here. || //
|// // There is no reason to think ||//
(/ // that any more was ever written. |//
||// The manuscript, which becomes //
|// increasingly rapid towards the end, //|
(/ peters out in a scrawl." //||
|| -Christopher Tolkien, _The Lost Road_ // ||