That's the me of my family lol. My sister is way more obssesed with the Peter Jackson movies than me, haven't seen them in yeeears, but I'm the one in the family that has read all of and knows too much about Tolkien's shit lol
Probably off a spinner rack of paperbacks at your local grocery in 1979 lmao. I got it off Thriftbooks, but yeah it's the first Ballatine Books version dated March '79, so idk how often this printing shows up there. It was only a few bucks when it did though
Me too! These are my Hobbit and LoTR printings, and I used to have a matching Book of Unfinished Tales (lost at somepoint over the decades) and I'm trying to refind the Unifinished Tales and trying to find if there was ever a matching Silmarilion
Lol compared to The Hobbit there's barely any! Atleast barely any that's fully written out. Feels like half the page count in The Hobbit is just lyrics sheets lol.
Ah, the book of books. I ceased reading it from start to the end about 15 years ago after my fourth time and since then I've only read single chapters when in the mood. Must have read some of them about 20-25 times. ^^
It's so great! IMHO, you only start to value how much work JRRT put into world building after you've read it. Sometimes, I still stumble upon single sentences/thoughts that explain something happening or someone saying something 3000 years later or in another book. Those moments are so satisfying.
LOTR 20+x, Silmarillion 8-10x
You'll find some deeper dives on Silmarillion content in : The Children of Hurin
The Book Of Lost Tales I & 2
The Shaping of Middle-Earth
Lol yeeeah I do a lot of my reading with audiobooks at work, but nothing beats holding the book even if it's usually read 10 pages then fall asleep or need to do soemthing else lol. I'll be interested in seeing your thoughts if you do though 😊
Can you imagine the complexity of making a trilogy of films, based on the silmarillion, the stories within the book could make 10 films or more.
It’s bonkers brilliant writing
Lol tbh I like the deep works more than the mainstream ones, mostly because of how they're written. I blame it on growing up wiht old D&D sourcebooks, but no one to play with lol
I read it when I was 11 and my brain was teflon and retained nothing, other than a feeling a bit disappointed that Tom Bombadil was not explained. I thought for sure they'd cover it there.
In Tolkien's letters he actually told a friend about how Tom Bombadil, and a few other things, were supposed to break the plot and never be explained. The Silmarilion is meant to be written by the elves, and his point was there are some things not even the elves could know.
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You'll find some deeper dives on Silmarillion content in : The Children of Hurin
The Book Of Lost Tales I & 2
The Shaping of Middle-Earth
Far too many names I could not pronounce, let alone remember them all.
I have so many books to read, but getting past 10 pages, before I start to noddy dog, is an achievement for me.
It’s bonkers brilliant writing
I should take another run at it.
I do suggest that!