What order??

[Arwen Imladris]

I am planning to re-read the tolkien books this summer. (I am a high school student and I just finished my last exam today! smilies/smile.gif )

I was wondering if anyone had an idea on what order I should read them in. I have The Hobbit, LOTR, the Silmarillion and Unfinished tales. I am pretty sure that my library does not have any other middle-earth related books by tolkien (they have Roverandom and Farmer Giles of Ham though! smilies/smile.gif )

Any suggestions?

[Elrian]

One good way is to start with the Silmarillion, then the Hobbit, LotR, and Unfinished Tales.

[The Silver-shod Muse]

Not to be off-subject, but our library has only one Tolkien book - The Hobbit smilies/mad.gif ! How can they do that? Arguably the greatest writer of the century and they don't even carry his major works! Far worse than this is that they have a whole shelf of cheap, dollar-store, romance novels...*foams at the mouth and twitches uncontrollably*

Sorry about that. I'm done now. smilies/biggrin.gif

I haven't read all of the Unfinished Tales, but I would recommend reading them last so that there isn't confusion between his "in development" characters and his real ones.

[ June 21, 2002: Message edited by: The Silver-shod Muse ]

[NyteSky]

I'd go the Hobbit, LotR, the Silmarillion and then Unfinished Tales. But I haven't actually read the last two. Yet. That's something I'm planning on doing this summer too. To me the Silmarillion seems like it's mostly history and background of the events of the Hobbit and LotR. So you could get the history first which might put the Hobbit and LotR in some context or the other way around which will put the history in some context. But I'm not the most knowledgeable one about this. Have fun reading!

[Anarya SilverBranch]

To tell you the absolute truth, I didn't get around to finishing The Hobbit. I read the synopsis in fotr and contionued from there. I just couldn't get into the Hobbit. The dwarves bugged me, I don't know why. But anyway, I read lotr, than the sil, than the unfinished tales. And for extended Tolkien reading I HIGHLY suggest The Lays of Beleriand. I love that book! smilies/smile.gif

[Bramblerose Gamgee-Took]

The Silver-shod Muse, our school is the same. Five hundred students, thousands of books, and yet only one Lord of the Rings. Absolutely useless smilies/tongue.gif

[Tarthang]

Read The Hobbit then LOTR. They more or less go together, and were completed by JRRT. Then read the Silm and HoME, which were written by JRRT, but were never fully completed by JRRT.

[Arwen Imladris]

Thank you guys! The only problem now is that each of you told me something different! smilies/rolleyes.gif Oh well. I think that I will read The Hobbit, then LOTR, then Sil, then UT. That is partly because my brother is currently reading MY copy of the Sil, and I am pretty sure that I should read the Sil before UT.

My town must be weird. At our school library we have a couple of copies of LOTR and the Hobbit, nothing else though. We have a Pop of about 500 too. At the town library there are several copies of LOTR and The Hobbit along with the Sil and several other tolkien things. Oh well. Happy Reading smilies/smile.gif

If anyone else has any ideas, feel free to post. smilies/smile.gif

[*Varda*]

I don't think my town library has ANY Tolkien works! Perhaps it stretches to one copy of LotR but that's it! It's not like it's a large town but it's not that small either! I'm just lucky I own the Hobbit, Sil and LotR. However I'm reduced to haunting the bookshops in Glasgow to find UT. Our crappy bookshop doesn't stock it smilies/mad.gif and i want to read it over the summer! I saw it once but had no money and now it's gone! smilies/eek.gif life isn't fair!

And I would recommend reading Hobbit, LotR, Sil, and UT in that order.

I'm planning on spending most of my summer reading Tolkien. smilies/cool.gif

[Nufaciel]

My library has all but three of the History of Middle earth books. They have several copies of The Hobbit, LotR, and The Silmarillion....I'm surprised that with the newfound popularity of Tolkien, your libraries haven't ordered more books by him....maybe you should ask.

[Starbreeze]

To tell the truth I have nver looked in wither of my local librarys for Tolkien books - I generally buy what I read.

I suggest: Silm, Hobbit, LotR, UT, then, if you can find it, HoME.

[Aldagrim Proudfoot]

I read the Sil after Lotr. It was kind of cool because I knew about the Ents and Balrogs and then it told where they came from. Who knew they were orginally Maiar?

Also, my school doesn't really have Tolkien in the library. He's not "important" enough. *twitches*

[Eärendil]

I read lotr, then the hobbit, then lotr again, the silm. and then ut. smilies/rolleyes.gif

The library where I live have lotr and the hobbit, boring, as I already have them, sigh... Can´t they take in the silm. too, so I won´t have to order every time I want to read it? Oh well, will soon get it for a gift anyway.... smilies/biggrin.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

For everyone who said their libraries did not have LotR books.......Some time ago, I was head of book selection first at UH and then the public libraies, and I know librarians will respond to requests. Make a verbal request, or better yet turn in a written request with the titles. You can mention they are definitely in print. (that's always a consideration) Also, point out that two more installments of the movies will be out so it is likely more people will want to read them. At the very least they should get some paperback copies.

Finally, ask about getting the books sent from another library. I have used interlibrary loan to get a load of titles. It takes a while but they usually come through eventually.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Birdland]

Good point, Child. Many libraries are interconnected now, due to the Internet. Ask your librarian.

And for all you people out there who might actually have more than one copy of a Tolkien book. Don't forget donating to your local library!

Also (and I know this doesn't help our younger readers, but I'm surprised how many adults don't know this), a bank debit card can be used just like a credit card online, so if your local bookstores don't stock the titles you want, get a debit card from your bank and go online to find those books.

[Beren87]

Be careful about makeing requests though..
AT my school library I make a request for a couple of books, two weeks later they put me in charge of new book selection..

*sheesh*
Needless to say, we have many copies of every Tolkien book.
Fools

[Salix]

Now my school library feels huge. We have (last i checked) about 2 copies of LOTR in one book, 3 copies each of TTT and ROTK and all the FOTR books are checked out semi-permanently. We only have one copy of the Sil and that's on tape. smilies/mad.gif No UT or HoME or anything else except Farmer Giles. smilies/rolleyes.gif

[The Silver-shod Muse]

Child, I wish I had someone with real appreciation and interest for a librarian. I don't know what our librarians think they're supposed to be doing, but it certainly isn't humoring us students and bothering with trivial matters like stocking what we'd like to read. smilies/rolleyes.gif.

In truth, I think the real culprit is underfunding.

[Calencoire]

Well, the way I read them was LOTR, Hobbit, Sil, and UT. But I would probaly read the Hobbit first. Have you read Unfinished tales once already? THat one is a hard one to understand. I have so far only read the interesting chapters.

[Arwen Imladris]

Well, I am part way through UT, I will finish reading it before I re-read everything.