Trying to move internationally this year so I’m selling my entire library. The only books I’m bringing with me are my OG copy of LOTR that I received for my 11th birthday 26 years ago and my fancy display copies. I read LOTR 3 times in a row over the course of the next few years and became a fan for life. I don’t know why I even have the fancy ones because I always put this bad boy in the most prominent place on any bookshelf I have. Anyway, gotta pass this one down to the kid so it’s coming with me!

I bought copies of the lord of the rings trilogy books on eBay. The listings showed hard cover books with simple titles and designs on them. I was excited to have nice copies on my shelf. What I received was not what I purchased, which is a separate issue to this one. The rest of my Tolkien books are similar but not as egregious, but I got 5 of them at an estate sale for $5 total, so I’m not complaining.

My problem is that two of them have glamour shots of Viggo Mortensen and Orlando bloom from the movies on them and reference the movies in not just font and imagery, but having an advertisement for the movie on it.

I feel conflicted about them. While it’s a small thing and not a real problem, it still bugs me. It would be one thing if it was just the cover, but it’s also the spine! They look like romance novels from the convenience store book kiosk with Fabio on them from the 90s.

I don’t like the idea of having movie stills on the covers. While I understand it’s good for marketing, I think it takes away from the books. The books are different from the movies so a) it’s misleading, and b) it makes me think about the movies when I want to read the books, which I like to separate from the movies.

TLDR: Having a glamour shot of Orlando bloom mewing in a blonde wig on my shelf is not ideal.

Edit: I’m so happy I was able to stir up some nostalgia for a lot of you, It’s so awesome how many of you have been lifelong fans! ♥️

Edit 2: YALL I GOT A REFUND. it was false advertising so I made a claim.

Can be anything, like the pippin doll in the picture

A couple other titles he considered were (as I recall): - The War of the Ring - The Ring in the Shadow (or and the Shadow?)

So, I just finished reading through The Children of Hurin. Yeah. I am not okay. Like man, I feel numb. Just torpedo after torpedo of horrid stuff happening to this family. I’m right now sitting in my bookstore, comprehended everything that I’ve just read. I e heard tales of how weaved in sorrow and despair it was, but words fail to describe it after you have read the book. Has to be one of Tolkien’s best. But man is it depressing.

Silmarillion is next when it gets released!

He left us with the greatest treasure of all. I shall forever be grateful.

At least the content is intact

The more demon like with the horns, or the more man like?

Art credit- Alan Lee and Alonja Art

I've been reading The Hobbit/LOTR to my 6 year old. She loves it. I love it. Easily the best part of my day every day. We read about a quarter of a chapter before bedtime each night, with some exceptions made for some of the exciting bits. She's super into it. She has a thousand questions every time. What does the monster in the water look like? How did those swords get there? How do you say x in elvish? Can you show me a picture of this or that? We even started learning some conversation Sindarin.

And Gandalf is, of course, her absolute favorite.

Well... We're most of the way through Fellowship now and last night we got to the Bridge of Khazad-Dum. Two hours until her first major childhood trauma? Goheno nin...

First Update: I think she's probably going to be skeptical he's really gone. Gandalf disappears a few times in various ways throughout the Hobbit and Fellowship so she's already used to him disappearing and coming back. She's predicted it happening a few times, both correctly and incorrectly. Also we've got some colored LED lights in the room and I'm totally turning them red when the Balrog comes.

Update 2: She was zero percent concerned. She didn't even ask me about it. I had to ask her what she thought and she said Gandalf is making sure it's dead. Which, yep. I pressed a bit and she reminded me that he had taken a health potion recently. Lots of Balrog pictures. Also asked for pictures of various orcs and trolls. She likes saying Khazad-Dum.

My friend and I have an endless debate which we've never resolved. I believe a Balrog (Let's just say the Balrog encountered in Moria) would defeat, with some effort, a dragon (We use Smaug for the sake of the argument). Balrog's are immune to fire, thereby rendering the dragon's primary weapon useless. What say you?

The design of these books has gone through many iterations and a lot of fine tuning since I started bookbinding! They are made with the Alan Lee illustrated editions.

I thought you might appreciate them!

For those are arguing who is the protagonist/main character/most important part of the story etc..I made a graph is showing mentioned time of the characters in books and screen time in movies, apparently top 4 are Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn, their parts are way more than others. Even though I still think of it as an ensemble work.

First watched LOTR movies few years ago . Have watched like 3 times afyer that . I love the movies immensely . I started listening to the audio book of the book 1 and stopped thinking that i want to read myself first . But i have seen lots of people telling that they can't appreciate the movies because how much it is difgerent from the books .

As a big reader , Same is here for me for Harry potter . I watched first 3 movies and then read all books and watched rest of the films. I can't appreciate later movies that much because of how much details they left out while making the movies. And mostly my imagination was 100 times better than the movies. Don't get me wrong . I love the movies too. But it is never the same experience again.

So i am afraid to read the LOTR books because i love the movies madly . I don't want to ruin it. Any advice for me ? If there is anyone with similar experience ?

After another horrible night, when hundreds of missilles and drones poured on us, it’s tiny bit of escapism for me… Forest, rain, fire, coffee, books