The History of The Middle Earth
 

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy the 12 Volumes of HoME in one book? I think I remember seeing a book just called The History of The Middle Earth, but alas I was too stupid to get it then. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Now all the bookstores have is the 12 Volumes seperate. I am not going to spend $50 to get it when if it came in one book it would be more like $20.

So if you have seen such a book in a notable store that would have chains in the Bay Area in California, please tell me. I dont think there are any online versions of it. Amazon has only shown me a link to the 12 Volumes all nice and neat, which would be great except for the feeling that they are just trying to rip me off by not making it one book.

Thanks for the help.

The only compiled versions I know of is in a three-volume set, and each volume is nearly $100. Amazon.co.uk carries them.

Wow, that's expensive...

So, Obloguy and anyone else who has it, you are telling me that you have 12 books of The History of The Middle Earth? Im just making sure that this is the right thing to do. I really want these books but dont want to get ripped off.

Actually, I lack the History of the Lord of the Rings series contained within HoMe, as well as vol. IX. The contents just don't interest me much.

But yes, the books are definitely worth the money. The first five can be found fairly easily in a compact little paperback edition for about $6 each. The last three are only available in the U.S. in a very nice hardback edition for approximately $30 each, but you can order the paperback versions of them from stores overseas. Amazon.co.uk is where I purchased two of mine for about $18 each. I know the HoLotR subseries is available in a box-set, as well as nice individual paperbacks and hardbacks, though I can't say how they're priced.

I'm not sure if it's possible to get the entire set in a proper series of volumes. My Tolkien collection is published by about four or five different companies.

The entire HoME series in three books?!? Twelve into three? Mighty thick books, if you ask me... Impractically thick. How are you supposed to read those? With a shovel? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

BTW: My days of posting/login problems seem to be a chapter of the past now... Hooray!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

If your looking to get them but not spend a fortune, check your local book store and see if they can order the paperbacks for you. Amazon UK would have them too.

Thirteen if you count Unfinished Tales. Definitely worth it. There's nothing like having them all lined up on a book shelf. But then, I also own two copies of the Silmarillion so that I don't have to carry it back and forth when I go home on weekends; so maybe if you have a bit more of a life than me you won't want them all. I do recommend reading them all in order, but if you intend to skip around, I particularly recommend Unfinished Tales, The Lays of Beleriand, Morgoth's Ring, The War of the Jewels, and the Peoples of Middle-earth.

I wouldn't recommend the box-set, as in place of Sauron Defeated it has The End of the Third Age, which does not include the Notion Club Papers and the Drowning of Anadune.

Speaking of the Histories: I've been trying to finish off my collection (I still lack, ironically, The Book of Lost Tales I; Sauron Defeated and The Return of the Shadow) but they've stopped issuing the series I was collecting, presumably so that they can bring out an overpriced new edition on the back of the film.
(trails off mumbling about publishers, black-hearted Shylocks etc)...

Heh. I've noticed the opposite mindset, Squatter. Copies of HoME that used to live at my local bookstore have gone away to create shelf-space for more copies of the audience-friendly LotR.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I will, ofcourse, get all 12 Volumes. I just didn't know how much writing was involved in all these books. I am actually very pleased though. I was worried I was running out of Tolkien books to read! That would be awful.

[ February 09, 2002: Message edited by: Elendur ]

What Waterstone's in Reading has done (both branches)is to have entire shelving units devoted to about six different versions of The Hobbit, FoTR, TTT, RoTK and the Sil, massive stacks of LoTR books all over the place and huge tables full of the same (interspersed with the odd copy of Unfinished Tales and numerous copies of the Harvard Lampoon book Bored of the Rings (actually this looks as though it might be quite funny); then they catalogue the Histories under 'T' in the Science Fiction section. Mystifying? It's almost gnostic.

What! Nobody mentions the "used" word? [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] I'm sure you can find any or all of the volumes for pennies on the dollar at used book stores, or find them online at eBay or Amazon's used selection.

After all, half the fun of collecting books is in the searching.