Favourite Edition?
 

As both Houghton-Mifflin (US) & Harper-Collins (UK) are bringing out a new anniversary edition of LotR in November: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/...eNumber=689507
I was wondreing what everyone's favourite edition is - & whether you have it, or just hope to own it one day. I have the ed. with the Alan Lee paintings, but unfortunately they remind me of the movies too much, so I'm a little uncomfortable reading it, & have to 'look away' from the pics! Some readers love the Folio Society edition - though apparently it is full of typos!

Of course, it doesn't have to be an expensive edition - it could be a battered old paperback, or one given you as a gift, or one with some other kind of sentimental value. Or have you, like me, replaced an early edition which you then gave away & wish you hadn't - my first LotR was a 3 vol paperback edition in a slip case, published by Allen & Unwin (circa 1976). About a year later I replaced it with hardbacks & gave that set away, & still miss it!

Also, as with the Folio edition, does anyone know of any editions to avoid - with typos, poor binding, etc?

I was thinking of this topic as a thread the other day!

My favourite copy is
this edition (this particular link isn't mine to sell, by the way!). I think this is the 1981 edition. This was the set which belonged to my brother and were the ones I first read (and immediately re-read). They are very battered, having had two owners, but I wouldn't part with them (I never give away books anyway). I have the edition of The Hobbit to match this, and a very old Silmarillion and UT. I also have the slightly later boxed 1986 paperback edition (Roger Garland high-fantasy type covers), which I was given to prevent me damaging my brother's copy; these are the ones I use most, and are now well on their way to becoming battered themselves.

I do want the Alan Lee edition, as somebody I know bought it the other week and I was most covetous. Perhaps I may ask for it for my birthday presentses. I would also like a one volume paperback, purely for use when I'm debating points from the text (but I would like the one with Gandalf on the cover).

Talking of being covetous, I had a discussion about books with someone I was working with a couple of months ago, and it turned out that she owned the first editions. She was shocked when I told her what they would be worth.

The book in davem's link looks awesome, very stylish, but a bit too fancy for my taste. I think I couldn't concentrate on reading with a book that looks like a piece of art itself.
I have become attached to this Finnish hardback edition. It's only a few years old but it has sand and stains in it (maybe it was a bad idea to take it to the beach with me...).
I also like my English edition of the book. It's a paperback and dind't cost much but I think it's kind of sympathetic.

Excellent! Yet another opportunity for me to sing the praises of my beloved seven volume hardback edition, published by Harper Collins (UK) in 1999.
Each book is beautifully bound and so much easier to handle than the three-volume version. The appendixes get their own volume. And it came with a free CD of Tolkien reading his works.
I'd love to post a link to a picture of it but I can't find any trace of it on the net... :(

I just have the ever-popular three-book 1994 (I think, don't quote me on that) edition that one would see in bookstores most often. The tragedy is that they are currently in a state of decay, and I'm in the market for that spiffy new one you linked to, davem, lest my sources be permenently held together with rubber bands and paperclips.

The Red Book
 

I have this edition. (Make sure you scroll down to see the cool cover.) It's a bit simliar to the anniversary edition in design, though the color and actual patterns on the covers and spine are different.

There are so many nice ones, it's quite hard to choose. I remember feeling very triumphant when I bought my second Red-Box Ballantine paperback set. Those (and several others) had Tolkien's own paintings on the cover: Hobbiton, The Forest, and Barad-Dur. But it was the Heraldry on the red box that (as a young teenager) hypnotized me for hours on end.

The much newer boxed paperback set with the illustrations of Frodo at the Ford, Sam & Frodo at the Emyn Muil, and Gandalf approaching Minas Tirith are another favorite. The Hobbit has Gandalf approaching Bag End which has been the Del Rey cover ever since.

Diamond, the Red Book is lovely! Have you seen the Green Book? ;)

Saraphim, go ahead and get a new set-- just take good care of your old one and never throw it away (like I did, fool that I am. It was mildewed, more's the pity.) So don't store yours in a damp basement like I did...

My friend has an all-in-one copy of LotR and the Appendices, paperback, and has the picture of the Ring with the ashes of Sauron's cut finger in front. Despite the thickness, it was relatively light and does not get unsightly lines at the spine. I hope to get a copy of that. I forgot the publisher, though.

Yes, indeed. I have that one too. :)

Thought I'd do a bump-up on this one seeing as we've been talking about different editions on the Books forum. Plus, I've got some rather ace links here - which I must add, davem actually found last night.

The Tolkien Library is a site which aims to detail all the writings available by Tolkien; it also has items about collecting the books, and some other good links.

This gallery of Book Covers is fascinating - and not so long ago (though I cannot now recall on which thread) I asked if anyone knew if there was such a thing as a gallery of cover art. Well, there is, and this is a pretty good one as it includes not only popular covers but some strange and freaky ones too.

Finally, Tolkien Books is my favourite of these three as it's focussed on UK editions and goes into detail with just about anything you might need to know about the many editions available (apart from prices ;) ). I should imagine this would be really useful when browsing ebay... It also has a lot of useful info. I was on this for too long last night, mentally creating a shopping list... :eek:

Thanks for those links Lalwende, I just found my edition on the Tolkien Books site, it's the Harper Collins Millennium hardback edition, published in 1999.

Yesss, preciousss, but we has only one!
 

I've mentioned my one and only (and therefore, favorite ;) ) LotR edition on other threads. [Esty has only one copy, Esty needs only one copy. One Book to rule them all!] It's the one that was given to me in 1973, Ballantine's red-boxed paperback edition. I love the fact that it uses Tolkien's own artwork for the covers! It has held up very well, though it's been used a lot these past years on the Downs and is underlined (in pencil - I never underline books in ink!) extensively. I've looked at some of the interesting new, illustrated editions, but have seen no immediate need for purchasing any of them yet. I have lots of Tolkien and related books, but only one each.

Oh Lalwendë, bless your heart for those links! I see my old copies, as well as my new set in the second link. I have been reading from the gold boxed edition with heraldary, the books are the last 4 in the 3rd row from the top in your 2nd link. They are now falling apart from traveling to work with me, and I have plans to retire them with honor at the end of CbC.

Also my old copy of The Silmarillion is there!!! The cover shows the mountains and is 4th after Mr. Bliss. Sadly, I have reluctantly declared it MIA as I can not seem to find it anywhere.

Some of the books in the last link seem to have come from M-E itself. How wonderful they are!

Wow, great link, Lal.

I started out with the so-called "Hippie Edition" which was given to me by my uncle. I still have TT and RotK from that set, but Fellowship seems to have gone missing. They are yellowed with age and close to falling out of their bindings from many readings. I don't read them anymore.

I also had the "Silver Jubilee" editions back in the day, of which only The Hobbit, RotK, and the Silm have survived through the intervening years.

I'm currently making due with a Fellowship with Michael Herring cover art -- which I think is some of the worst cover art ev-er. Mine has the art on a black, not green, background, though.

I also have the "red leatherette" ("leatherette"?) boxed edition, but it doesn't travel anywhere with me, only sits on my nightstand for those few evenings when I have the luxury of reading time. I really like the maps in this one.

My UT is a trade paperback edition but looks exactly like the middle book in the top row. Or at least it did at one time. Now it looks like the Book of Mazarbul, yellowed with age, warped and stained from having once been soaked, falling out of its binding. I keep a rubberband looped around it to hold it together when I'm not reading it.

I recently saw the paperbacks with the John Jude Palencar art on them at the local bookstore and was quite taken with them. I've been thinking of picking them up and retiring all my other old mismatched paperbacks.

My first set were Allen & Unwins with the eye surrounded by the verse of the ring in Elvish. A present from "Father Christmas" in 1980 they disintegrated leaf by leaf in 2001 when I lent them to my god-daughter. They were replaced by the film paperbacks (on offer...) . ROTK has now lost its back cover so my ideal edition would be an indestructable soft covered, three volume edition (one volume is too big ) . I would like a nice hardback set but I would still need a portable set...

I love finding out what editions other Downers use - I like to imagine which version people are reading from! Well, I have several copies of some of the books as I find some of the editions hard to resist. It's a good excuse anyway... ;)

The editions I use most often are the top two sets on this page. The set with the Pauline Baynes covers is battered but is my very favourite and has lots of sentimental value, so much so that I actually sought out and bought a relatively unscathed copy of the boxed version. The Roger Garland set is also boxed.

I've also got hold of this set with John Howe covers. And I have the Alan Lee mega-edition which I only ever use to look at the pictures.

And as a warning to all would-be collectors, beware if buying the second set on this page. I have a set with these covers (they might have been intended for book-club sales) which I bought very cheaply, impressed by the art, but they are not very useable as they are full of typos!

Mister Underhill those covers by John Jude Palencar certainly are striking, clean lines and colors. I wonder if it the original artwork could be watercolor? I saw an another work that I assume is related on the Houghton Mifflin website's Tolkien page.

Lalwendë, I agree it is fun to see all the different editions that our fellow Downers read. My new set (dare I say it was a ‘birthday present’?) is so beautiful I am afraid to use it. Too precious. ;) The set is the second edition Houghton Mifflin hardbacks (in the lotrscrapbook link they appear as last book in the 5th row and first and second in the 6th row.) I have also gotten the hardback copy of The Hobbit with Tolkien’s artwork on the dust cover. I had not before seen an edition with the red sun that is on this link, though I do remember reading somewhere that Tolkien made note about the possibly.

And how about those covers that seem to be done in charcoal? I certainally can't see them reflecting the colorful tale held within! Frighteningly misleading, I'd say!

This is mine. They have the same cover art, but the titles and everything looks like the bottom one.

My Sil looks like this, its the third one, and my UT looks the same.

I like my copies a lot. :D

Mister Underhill wrote:
I had to read that twice. For, you see, I also started out with the "Hippie Edition", which was given to me by my uncle - except I still have Fellowship from that set, but not TT or RotK!

I have had this copy of The Hobbit for as long as I can remember. I also have The Annotated Hobbit.

I have this Alan Lee cover edition of TT and the Michael Herring edition of RotK, though with a black cover instead of red. I must admit that I never had a problem with the cover art, and indeed I've always pictured Aragorn more or less as he is there.

I also have the Alan Lee single volume edition at the bottom of this page, which is what I tend to use these days.

Plus, I've got these books on tape.

As for the Silmarillion, I have two copies of the one at the bottom of this page, one quite close to disintegrating (hence the second copy). I've had my eye on the third one on this page (with Nasmith's illustrations) for quite a while, but I just can't seem to justify owning three copies of the book at this point. Maybe when my original one finally turns into dust . . .

I have the first Unfinished Tales on this page. As for HoMe, I've got II, III, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII from the Houghton Mifflin set, I, IV, and V from the Del Rey set, VI from a Harper Collins set I can't find a picture of, and VII from a Houghton Mifflin set with a different style that I also can't find a picture of.

I think I'd better cut myself off there instead of moving on to Roverandom, Giles, and the rest. And I haven't even mentioned my calender collection.

I'm one of those people who only has one copy of each of my books. They are:

On this page, the LotR copy on the far right (the blue one) is mine, though considerably more beat up than that. I originally bought it used because it was only a total of $10 (half off), and on my sixth grade wallet that was pretty good. I do like how it is all three books in one, even if it does make it unwieldy for carrying around. My dog has chewed the bottom of the spinding (glued it back together!) and scratched up the cover a bit, and one of the maps is taped back into the book from when I accidentally ripped it out. And the spine is broken through the "Passage of the Marshes" chapter and about halfway broken in the "Riders of Rohan" chapter. But I wouldn't ever sell it, even for more than I bought it for. It's a very comfortable sort of book.

I love the cover art on these books (mostly FotR) - Ted Nasmith is probably my favorite Tolkien artist. That was the first copy of FotR I ever read, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for those books. If (or when) I get another set of LotR books, it would be either those or these, which match my Hobbit book (the middle), which I love. Of all my books, The Hobbit is probably my favorite as far as cover etc. goes. I think that it's the only book I ever bought a copy of that wasn't the cheapest copy available, but it's my favorite paperback edition of the Hobbit -it even has that nice smooth paperback cover which I adore in books. (It's a close contest for all time favorite Hobbit edition with the far left hardcover edition. My friend has it - I joke that I'm going to steal it sometime.)

My Silmarillion is the middle one, and my UT and the versions of HoME that I have (I-IV) are all the same publisher/cover type.

And if I could ever afford it, I would love to have the red leather edition of LotR. Now there's a book that wouldn't receive the same abuse that my current edition has endured!

I love the ROTK one. One of my favorite ROTK moments :D
I use that one a lot, simply because it's neat, well organised, and contains all three books. Nice White Tree illustrations as well! As for maps, my best friend is this map book which has helped me a lot through the hard times! This thread is a constant reminded to archive the books I have :rolleyes:

Aiwendil, it looks like you and I share quite a few of the same editions, even the UT (though I have now gotten a hardback as well. The last on that page.) I have also been eyeing the Nasmith Silmarillion you mentioned to replace the one I lost. Meanwhile have been making due with a paperback similar to Firefoot's.

Perhaps you and Mister Underhill should put the "Hippie Set" together and you each could take care of it on alternate years? ( I am curious now, if you might also share the same uncle!)

I'm beginning to suspect we're long-lost cousins, at least. How are the books-on-tape, by the way? I've been wondering if there is a good BoT edition but haven't taken the initiative to look for one.
Yeah, great RotK moment... Aragorn in a mauve cape, maybe not so much. ;)
Thanks for the link. I wonder what that other painting is from -- the Silm, perhaps? I don't know much about Palencar and what sort of materials he uses. I'm not normally a fan of such stylized images, but something about his paintings really captures the dark flavor of Middle-earth in a way that, say, the Herring pictures completely miss IMO.

Yes, I never cared for the Herring work either, or the Brothers Hildenbrant really, though they are very skilled artists. Herring's covers are too realistic; they don't feel like Middle-earth. Palencar’s cool palette on the other hand and his reserved style in these particular works is seems more appropriate.

I've never been a fan of the Bros. Hildebrandt, especially this pic, which (dis)graces the cover of Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth. Legolas in that Santa's-helper outfit, Aragorn in that Three Musketeers cavalier getup, and that bizarre hat on one of the hobbits.

As for Herring, I'm pretty sure no Elf -- let alone Leggy -- ever suffered the indignity of a mullet haircut, except maybe the ones captured and tormented by Morgoth.

I'm a huge fan of the cheap Houghton Mifflin "movie edition," with a black rider on the cover, and various pictures of the fellowship on the back. It's part my admiration of the various charms of Mortensen, Bloom, and Wood, (Rhys-Davies not so much, I hate to admit) and part something else entirely. It's the copy I bought, with what little money I had, over winter break of my senior year in high school, when I sat down to read LotR for the first time. It travelled with me to class, to bed, and to various Charlotte coffee shops.

It has an inscription that reads "Natalia. December 2001- February 2002." That was a happy time in my life and I wish to remember it always.

However, I really want the fancy hardback with the Alan Lee illustrations. Just because. Maybe if I ever sell out and get a consulting job... ;)

Great thread.

The dangers of book collecting...
 

I have avoided this thread, since I knew I would run off at the mouth. Please bear with me. I am not only a long-time Tolkien fan but a special collections librarian by training. This can be a dangerous combination! I've collected Tolkien and Tolkien criticism off and on from the early 60's. For endless years, I was a student so had virtually no money in my pocket and learned to be creative about acquiring the books I wanted. ;)

When the movies came out, and our family's budget loosened just a tad, I went temporarily berserk. Because of the internet and the fact that people were unearthing treasures out of their attic, you could find older editions that had been virtually unavailable before. Most of the early books I had casually picked up were published in the U.S since this is where I live. One of the nicest things about the movie upsurge was that I suddenly had access to a ton of material published in England, The lure was irresistable. The downside of all this was that prices for some things went through the ceiling and have never totally come down, at least not yet.

I am not an organized or picky collector. Some people know exactly what they want and confine themselves to collecting a particular title, publisher, era, whatever. Other people see their collecting as an "investment" and want their books in pristine condition. Because of this, they hide their "rarest" editions behind closed glass and never touch them.

None of this applies to me. I buy an edition because I love it or find something about it intriguing. I am an inveterate bargain hunter. I haunt library book sales and used bookstores. I will lurk for months on e-bay to get a particular edition at a bargain basement price. Many of my books are old and tatty, since I have read and re-read them many times. I collect paperbacks, hard covers, calendars, and old posters with equal glee. I do get a kick when I see that something I picked up for a few dollars at a garage sale has suddenly skyrocketed in price. But that's not why I do this. There are editions out there that are true works of art because of the quality of the illustrations or binding. And I find the publishing history of these books fascinating. It tells us so much about how different readers and generations have responded to Tolkien.

I have so many favorites I hardly know where to start. I love my early ACE and hippy Ballentine paperbacks. The latter are first printing, but hang together with tape. I also love anything illustrated by Pauline Baynes. One of my prize possessions is a signed bookplate with Farmer Giles and dragon that Baynes designed for her friend and book dealer Rene van Rossenberg. Rossenberg's shop has editions and titles I've never seen anywhere else. Most of Baynes' work appears as illustrations or covers for the Hobbit and Tolkien's minor works, but there is a one-volume edition of LotR, the earliest one the publishers put out, which has a lovely dustjacket that she did. I also like the Harper Collins 1992 India paper edition. The slipcase doesn't look like anything special but the volume is so well put together, plus it is light and easy to handle because of the "Bible" paper. And I love the gigantic clunky one-volume Alan Lee centenary edition (1992) that has those wonderful illustrations.

I've sometimes wondered which editions I would take with me if I was exiled to a desert island. Recently, when Rita threatened to hit Houston, I had the chance to find this out. Our family was making plans to evacuate. In the midst of scrambling around to safeguard my kids and pets, I managed to put some of my Tolkien books on a high closet shelf, hoping they would survive the anticipated flood. At the very last minute, I shovelled a few books into my suitcase. It was interesting to me to see what I chose. I guess when pinch came to shove, these have to be my favorites. I took the quirky old hardcover LotR put out by Houghton Mifflin, because it had so many memories of my days in college from the late 60s and the equally weird 1960 Readers' Union set (the earliest Book Club edition), which was the first hardcover intended for "the workingman". (It is the second row, under the hardcover British first editions.) I just like the idea of that. It has no illustrations and a strange cover that I doubt Tolkien appreciated, but this would definitely have to be the set that Samwise owned!

BTW, if anyone wants to learn more about a particular book they own, I would recommend visiting the Tolkien Collectors Forum. Occasionally, someone like Wayne Hammond will post on the site, and some of these people really know their stuff. BTW, if you have an older book that lacks the "real" dustjacket, you can sometimes pick up a facsimile here. Just insert the name Tolkien in the search line at the top and a page will come up.

Wow, Child, I'd love to get a tour of your collection. I'm especially intrigued by the "India Paper" edition -- it sounds so exotic. I guess it is, considering that according to amazon.uk, only a thousand were published. Why such a limited run? I'd love to own one.

I dig your philosophy of collecting. Books are meant to be read, not sealed in plastic or locked under glass.

So glad you decided to post!!! That was a real treat!

But for enshrining books, I'm guilty to an extent, I suppose. The books I truly love, I tend to have a copy to read and a copy (hardback) to keep on the bookshelf in case of emergency. I have come to believe that these fancier copies are 'put away' in order to ease the heartache when the old paperbacks finally do turn to dust.

Mister Underill wrote:
Overall, I like them a lot. Inglis does most of the voices quite well - each is somewhat distinctive, but it's never overdone. There are a few characters, I admit, for whom his voices don't quite match up with my imagination - Theoden in particular. His singing isn't bad either, and the tunes are fairly close to what I had imagined.

One book which I saw at Tolkien 2005 in the Dealers' Room was most definitely kept under glass. Songs for the Philologists. The number of copies available are said to be as few as 14. As far as I know, nobody bought it.

That dustjacket is the cover for FotR and RotK in my favourite set - I get this strange sense when I look at the Fellowship cover that I am about to go off on an adventure. It's possibly my younger self thinking this, but it's a powerful memory very easily recalled.

The edition of The Hobbit that I love the most is this one with Smaug on the cover, which I have two copies of, one to keep for sentimental reasons (the first one I read, which goes with my oldest LotR set) and one to read. I also have an edition illustrated by Michael hague which has pages of text missing so is possibly a curiosity, and a paperback of the smae which I got for 50p. ;) I also have this one on my desk at work, this one to match my Grafton set and the Alan Lee one.

One book which has incredible sentimental value is one which davem gave to me, even before we met (which shows how lovely he really is :p ) and that's the Ted Nasmith Silmarillion. For everyday use at home I use another of my brother's old copies, this one and at work I have another Roger Garland edition which cost me 20p. ;)

My favorite edition is my favorite because of sentimental value. It was my mom's before it was mine. The three books are separate and were printed in 1973 by Ballantine, although the copyright is from 1965.

My mom was a hippie, and these books were hers. They are the books that I was first introduced to LOTR with...and they are now rather battered, in spite of my efforts to keep them neat and clean and nice. There is nothing like reading them for me. They have that unique smell that I associate with the LOTR reading experience, an old-book, lived-in, friendly sort of smell. I have the Fellowship volume on my table here as I type, and if I touch it, I can feel a kind of electricity, a demand to open it up and read it. If I hold it close to me, I can smell the invitation to read. A book for me (but this story in particular) is an experience that not only captures my heart and mind, but is also physical, right down to the smell of the paper and ink, the feel of the pages at my fingertips (soft and worn, yellow around the edges with time).

I have my own copy of LOTR, a paperback 3-in-one from Houghton-Mifflin in 2001, though I have noticed an error or two in there...though I am by no means an expert. But there's else something missing in it, because it wasn't the first LOTR I read. It's different. And I can't really explain why.

One of my friends and I got lost once in an Alan Lee illustrated version of LOTR. We were visiting the Tolkien aisle in our local book store and stopped to ooh and ahh over the wonderful pictures. If I had enough money, that is what I would buy. I love his art.

It's a pity Squatter wasn't there, Lal--or at least not that he's told us ;)--as this sounds exactly up his alley. I do recall him spending a fair bundle on a LotR first edition, which he generously showed some us one memorable afternoon in the Bird and Baby.

You didn't happen to remember the going rate, did you? Not that I would buy it for Squatter. A bidding war, though .... ;) :D

You know, I have to confess that the LotR edition I use most often these days is the pdf one I keep on my computer desktop. Very handy for searching...

The first Tolkien book I ever saw, when I was small, was this one: http://www.tolkienbooks.net/html/the...937-1984_5.htm - it belonged to my mother, I think it's still around somewhere, without its cover probably.
We also had in the house the Pauline Baynes single volume paperback Child mentioned, although it lost its cover very quickly due to the multiple readings it endured...
The edition I love the most is my first edition copy of the Silmarillion, bought with my very own saved-up pocket money from a little bookshop which is now, I believe, a Subway sandwich joint.... :(

Davem remembers the price as being about £1500, which is not that bad considering how few copies there are available!

Are you from the UK Lalaith? I can't believe how difficult it is to find little bookshops these days; where I live seemingly every little shop is being turned into take-aways, restaurants or bars. :( Those large, well-known chain bookshops just aren't the same (and seem to be being eaten up by coffee shops themselves...). I tend to find most of my unusual books from charity shops or ebay these days, though the 'remainder' bookshops can sometimes turn up a treasure, as I found the very rare Tolkien Family Album in one of these.

In the U.S. too. The little holes in the wall where long ago I found UT and the first three volumes of HoMe have all disappeared. I must confess, though, that I think there is something quite wonderful about a truly huge bookstore.

In this day and age of the internet and cellphone (and, indeed, the Barrow-Downs), and enormous, department-store type of place devoted entirely to books and reading is an awesome wonder to behold- and to think about.

It's such a pity though, that it comes at the cost of a cozy little bookstore.

To add my contribution to the "editions" topic, I have no hardcover copies of the LotR. Not of any of them. It's all paperback.

Which isn't such a bad thing, although I DO hope to get myself a good, fancy, hardback set one of these years. But that's after I finish accumulating all the History of Middle-Earth for myself, as well as all the other miscellaneous Tolkien-related books of other natures.

In the meantime, I am an inveterate collector of used paperbacks. I pretty much can't pass up a copy of any Tolkien book if I come upon it in a thrift store or used bookstore. Fortunately, such visits are rare and such sightings rarer, because although I already have three sets (none complete) and several extra copies of the Fellowship, I would be hardpressed to not buy another copy, if I came on one I did not already have.

I'm much like Child in that respect...

You know, living in the countryside, it is about 40 minutes ride to any bookstore. So I tend to depend on the Internet for books and music, (though I do browse titles in thrift stores and library sales locally.). I have felt guilty about this, for even though it is often easier to find what I am looking for on the computer, I felt as though I was helping kill little bookstores left and right. Just the other day though, I ordered a used CD that I found through Amazon, and imagine my surprise when I found it came from a familiar used bookstore in Baltimore called Secondstory Books! It gives me hope that Internet sales might help the little guys out there too.

Still, I do miss thumbing through actual copies of things, and unfortunately I have yet to come across anything Tolkien at a ‘Book Sale’.

Yes, Lalwende, I'm in the UK, London to be precise. I spent a lot of my childhood sitting on the floor of that bookshop that is now a Subway, reading all sorts of stuff off the shelves, it was one of the great things about little bookshops like that, you were allowed to do that...
We do still have an independent bookshop within cycling distance and I try to use it as much as I can. But the local Waterstones is of course often all too handy, not to mention Amazon.

But Hilde's point about the internet and second-hand bookshops is an excellent one. I frequently use abebooks, and I like to telephone the bookshops that come up with the volumes I want to make my purchase, rather than just order them impersonally through the net.

Another rescuer of forlorn books, eh? I do this myself to be honest. I can feel comforted in the knowledge that all books which enter my house get a good home. ;)

They don't seem to encourage that sort of thing in the big chain bookshops, which is one of the reasons I don't find browsing in them all that pleasurable. Yes, you can be almost certain of getting what you want, but there is not that surprise factor that you would get in the small bookshop of suddenly discovering something you had not thought about before. That factor is one of the reasons I especially love second hand bookshops. We used to have one here that was full of chairs to sit in, they even had a cat who would sit on your knee. :)

Up in Scotland, the small (tiny) town of Wigtown is worth a visit as it is devoted to bookshops, and my father thinks Hay-on-Wye is another good place for books, though I haven't been there yet. York used to be good but only has one good second hand bookshop now sadly. Southport up the coast from Liverpool has lots of wonderful second hand bookshops, including the best one I've ever been in, and Whitby has two lovely little bookshops. I do judge towns on the quality of their bookshops, as I couldn't see myself living in a bookless town, even if it is a chain store. There's something about the tactile quality of browsing books that I would miss. :(