Friday, February 14, 2003


The Quest for the Books

I decided to take the plunge recently...no I'm not getting married, I've just been very interested in reading the LOTR books. But since they're SO complicated and my first couple of viewings of LOTR confused the heck out of me, I bought the Illustrated Encyclopedia a few weeks ago. I finally came to the spot where I thought I could read them, but LOTR are just 3 books in one universe. LOTR is to Tolkien's universe as ESB is to George Lucas' universe: they're just a piece of the puzzle.

The Silmarillion and The Hobbit are two of the other books, and I knew this, but the problem was: what order do I read them in? Well, the ency had a nice long list of all the stories and when they were published, and a good read of the history given in the ency gives you the right order to read them all in. Problem: I thought that all of the "lost stories" and "histories" were all in one book. My mistake.

When I called my local Waldenbooks to ask about pricing, the numbers for prices I was given was correct, but when I actually GOT there and saw ALL THOSE BOOKS...it took me forever to pick and choose which ones I was gonna buy first since buying all of them (and they were missing at least one) would put me well over $120 potentially. Indeed, I paid about $99 for what I *did* get: the 3 LOTR books, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales #1 (first of the "prequel" stuff and very early historically), and some other book about the languages of Middle-Earth.

That's a LOT of reading. And I don't have all the pre-LOTR stuff either.

What's worse, all the older historical and unfinished stuffs have LOTS of commentary to them. As if it weren't confusing enough! :-(

I've started with the languages book and it reads like a sort of textbook. I don't mind- I love it! And yes, I pulled out a pencil and started making notes. :-)

Well, "Here goes nothin'!" :-D
posted @ 10:35 PM  |   0 comments  |  

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