Background books? help pls =)

[Donisile Of Mirkwood]

Hi all i am 15 and have just finished reading the lord of the rings set for the second time(The Hobbit to the Return of the king) I didn't like fantasy book until a couple of years ago,i was more into SAS books but my dad had the Lotr box set from the 70's he said i should read them and i did, they are now my favourite all time books. but anyway....

I would really like to find out more about the first age and other stuff which is explained in a fairly simple way (Unlike the Appendixes in Return of the king),i am a very good reader tho, i was thinking about the 'History of middle earth books' does anyone know if these are good? Or if they can reccomend any others?

I would like to know about any other good books based on the lord of the rings set......well anyway,thankyou! smilies/biggrin.gif

[Manwe Sulimo]

Welcome to the Downs....

First off, breathe. Or at least use punctuation. Please.

Secondly....there are probably a million threads like this, but here's what you want to do: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, then to HoMe. For someone like you (namely, and not trying to sound cruel, a newbie), don't even think about reading HoMe until you've read LotR at least 5 times and The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales at least twice. I, like you, am 15, I've been reading Tolkien for six years, and I started The Book of Lost Tales I about a month ago, and I'm still confused.

Happy reading, and enjoy.

[ September 02, 2002: Message edited by: Manwe Sulimo ]

[Rose Cotton]

What's HoMe stand for?

[The Barrow-Wight]

HoME is the 12-Volume History of Middle-Earth series edited by Christopher TOlkien and published by Houghton Mifflin.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Or HarperCollins in our neck of the woods, Donisile. smilies/wink.gif They've just re-printed all of these books, which are on sale in all good book-shops.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Why is HoME so difficult to read?

Ive read LotR 3 times and same with the Silm and UT.

[Manwe Sulimo]

I don't know...it seems to be the same format as UT, which was relatively easy. Maybe it's all the "first version" names and the fact that it has basically destroyed our earlier readings of The Silmarillion....of course, I've only read Lost Tales I and Shaping of Middle-earth, so I can't really be trusted in anything like this.

[Donisile Of Mirkwood]

Thankyou for all the help everyone. I will try to use better punctuation.

[Rose Cotton]

I think I'm just gonna stick with LotR for awhile. My head hurts just reading the full title of HoMe.