What books have you read, by J.R.R. Tolkien

[Elizabeth]

What books have you read?
I've read
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One
Tales from the Perilous Realm which includes Roverandom
Farmer Giles of Ham
Smith of Wootton Major
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
On Fairy-Stories
Leaf by Niggle.
and The Silmarillion
And I've read
The Children of Húrin and The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún.
I am currently reading The Book of Lost Tales, Part One and The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

wow Thats alot
I have read
Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
The Children of Hurin
Rovarandom
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth
and I am currently reading the lays of Beleriand

[Elizabeth]

Cool, I still have to get the last two from my library.

Lol! Yeah, you can tell I have lots of time to kill.

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

The Beleriand is a little confusing because it is all just a giant epic poem but good none the less.

[Elizabeth]

Like Beowulf or what?

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

yeah exactly in it there are 2 lays, The Lay of the Children of Húrin and The Lay of Leithian

[Elizabeth]

Oh, ok. I liked Beowulf, so I'll probably like it.
Have you read Beowulf? You should check out this version Beowulf: A New Verse Translation.

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

I actually have not read it but I will once I get my hands on a copy.

[Elizabeth]

I totally recommend the New Verse Translation, its really cool. Cause they have it in old Saxon on one half of the page and then English on the other.

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

ohh that is cool.

[Elizabeth]

IKR!

[Ebster]

Hobbit, Lord of the Rings,Children of Hurin, Simarillion, Unfinished Tales, Farmer Giles of Ham, The Smith of Wootton Major<-------that one was particularly awesome btw

[Elizabeth]

Oh yeah, I loved Smith of Wootton Major!

[Ebster]

~Jesus Saves~ (Elizabeth) wrote: "Oh yeah, I loved Smith of Wootton Major!"

I don't want to spoil the story, but the ending really made me wish Tolkien could have written more about the inhabitants of Wooton Major and "Alf".

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

Wow I've never heard of that one well it's on my to read list now.

[Elizabeth]

Ebster wrote: "~Jesus Saves~ (Elizabeth) wrote: "Oh yeah, I loved Smith of Wootton Major!"

I don't want to spoil the story, but the ending really made me wish Tolkien could have written more about..."

Me too!

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

I feel a need to gloat, I own this http://tsdi.files.wordpress.com/2008/... envy me :P

[Elizabeth]

OMGosh, I do. Lucky!

[Sophie710]

Cody wrote: "I feel a need to gloat, I own this http://tsdi.files.wordpress.com/2008/... envy me :P"

argh lucky you

[Sophie710]

I'm going to read The Children of Húrin soon. is it good?

[Cody, Hir en Dagor]

It's awesome :)

[Elizabeth]

Sophie710 wrote: "I'm going to read The Children of Húrin soon. is it good?"

I thought so, I enjoyed it.

[Sophie710]

I'm reading it now. I can't get these names straight! It doesn't help that they all rhyme. Hurin, Turin, Morwen, Urwen- Arwen? Haldir? Halar? Is it the same Haldir? Beren and Luthien? I'm just very confused.

[Elizabeth]

I'm having that problem with the Silmarillion.

[Sophie710]

haha, im understanding it better now

[Sophie710]

and I really hate- Androg? is that his name who hates elves and dwarves- because he tied Beleg to a tree and Beleg is/was my new favorite character. i hope he dies. i think he will because of Mim's curse. don't tell me

[Elizabeth]

Lol, I haven't read that book in awhile. But it's sitting by my bed. I'll have to read it again.

[Sophie710]

I FINISHED IT!!! YAY but it ended so fast! It was like "And then they laid him on his grave and marked it Turin Turambar. This is the end of the tale of the children of Hurin." I had to read the last page twice to figure out it was the end.

[Elizabeth]

I know, it does end really quick.

[[deleted user]]

ive read, the lord of the rings trilogy, the hobbit, return of the shadow, the treason of isenguard, the shaping of middle earth, the war of the ring and the peoples of middle earth. still waiting for the silmarillion to come from the library

[Arul]

I've got the ebook (pdf) of the Hobbit to swap for any related ebooks by Tolkiens. Please email me any one ebook and I will reply with the pdf of The Hobbit. arulveerar@yahoo.com

[Sladjana]

I had read LOTR, Sil, Hobbit, The Children of Hurin and Unfinished tales :-)

[Sladjana]

And I also have The history of Middle- Earth in pdf, so if you want it, just tell me :>

[Kimberly]

I read an article in Huffington Post today comparing Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. I blogged about it and then set up a poll for people to weigh in. Please take the time to read the short blog post and weigh in on the poll. Comments ALWAYS welcome on my blog.

http://beautifulreaderkimmie.wordpres...

[Kimberly]

Check out my review on "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug" Comments are welcome! Lets get a debate going!

http://beautifulreaderkimmie.wordpres...

[Kimberly]

I've only read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Children of Húrin, but I plan on reading The Silmarillion as soon as I get my hands on a copy of it. Of course, I'll keep reading Tolkien stuff until I've run out of it, but The Silmarillion is at the top of my list.

[brooke1994]

I've read:
The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Roverandom

[Gryf]

I read The Lord of the Rings, and I just finished The Hobbit today.

[Vanessa]

I've read all but Roverandom and a piece from the History of Middle Earth volumes which I save for death bed reading.

[Jennifer]

Hello, everyone! I want to work my way through Tolkien's work this summer but I don't know in what order I should do it. I've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but my recent haul from Half Priced Books includes:
The Shaping of Middle earth
The Book of Lost Tales 1
The Book of Lost Tales 2
Unfinished Tales
The Lost Road and Other Writings
Children of Hurin
The Silmarillion

I just don't know if there is a certain order in which they should be read and I can't seem to find any suggested order online. I also feel like I'm missing a few texts.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Do you know of any text I might be missing? The Hobbit and LOTR are such an escape for me that I want to know as much about Tolkien/Middle Earth as I possibly can!

Thanks and Happy Reading!

[Elizabeth]

I would suggest reading The Simarillion next, but the rest can be read in any order you feel like. Some are a little weighty though, Children of Hurin is probably the most easy to read since it is more like LOTR/Hobbit. The other ones are more like a mythology/historical writing style.

[Strider]

I envy some of you who are able to read these books in a near pedagogical order, although Tolkien's writings are anything put pedagogical! By that I mean, my style of learning keeps me from being able to read straight through a series of any book(s) or set of movies, without seeking additional sources to supplement my questions that are raised throughout my reading/watching.

For example, I was surprised after reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy that Middle Earth had a long history prior to the time it was set in, including its characters and major causal events! Thus, it necessitated my reading The Hobbit for additional information which filled in many of my questions that arose during my reading of the LOTR.

Then I was exposed to The Silmarillion, which began to not only fill in some of the blanks in my understanding of the previous books, but open up a whole new world I never knew existed before. I was literally inundated with new horizons to learn about, and had to begin to assemble into my already faint understanding of the whole picture, not yet fully develops in my mind, yet needing to be pieced together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle (which I am not very good at!).

I bore you with these details because there are some of us out there that have a (for lack of a better word) dysfunctional learning style! We do not always "read the book from left to right" but jump all over the place, piecing the storylines together as we may.

When I go back and reread the LOTR, I now supplement it with a dictionary specific to all the names, places, etc. unique to Middle Earth, and beyond (meaning it is also relevant to all the people and places discussed in The Silmarillion and The Hobbit.) Yes, this greatly disrupts my reading flow, but it does also enhance, somewhat, my understanding of what I am actually reading. And to me, that is what makes reading so rewarding! (It is also why I suffer greatly when I watch movies that are made from books that I have thoroughly masticated during my reading them.

In all honesty, the best way for me to read, enjoy, and gain from any book I read (including movies) is for someone to tell me all about the book first, including the storyline fro start to finish. I know that sounds weird but for me the thrill of reading comes from the additional research/reading I do that is connected with the book or story, and not necessarily the story itself. I believe that is why I enjoy hearing people discuss a book and why they liked or did not like it, and how they viewed certain characters in the story, etc. It also reveals a lot about a person and their personality.

Now that I have at least a partial understanding of the overall setting of Tolkien's world, I would love to be able to sit under a university prof who teaches this topic! What an experience that would be, especially if the teacher shared the philosophy and general worldview of Tolkien, so that every nuance of meaning was allowed to remain in its proper place, along with its proper meaning.

Keep in mind that those of you who have suggested certain reading orders of Tolkien's books have done a great service to the average beginner trying to better understand the material. And for that you have my accolades!!! Thank you. I only wish, at times, I was designed to always read "from left to right." I bet school would have been much easier for me. :-)

[Rebecca L]

I have read;
The Fellowship of The Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of The King
The Children of Hurin

I really need to read more this year!

[Elizabeth]

Read Smith of Wootton Major, it's the cutest story ever and it isn't that long.

[Rebecca L]

Ok will do and thanks!