[Child of the 7th Age]

I had mixed feelings when I first read your comments. It's true that there have been times when I came up with a question intending to post, and then discovered that another thread already covered the same ground. So, in that sense, I do sympathize with what you're saying.

But, the longer I reflected on your question, I realized there's more than one way to approach the issue of new threads and ideas. First, I don't think it's asking too much to expect people to check back threads before they post a totally new question. In general, we're asking people to stop and think before they open up a new area of discussion, especially in an area like books.

Remember that the important thing on this site is not the number of new threads that go up here in a day or week. It's the quality of those threads and questions. In almost two years, I've read hundreds of threads here, many of which were totally forgettable. But there were others that stick in my mind and heart: some of them funny, some of them lyrical, and others showing insight and real feeling. It's those that make coming here worthwhile for me. Checking out what people have said in the past is just one part of that whole process.

Secondly, Sharku is right. Even if you pull up an older thread, read through it. You may well find there's something in it that isn't clear or wasn't addressed at all. Sometimes the best thing is simply to respond on that same thread and, by so doing, lift it up to the top of the heap for folk to add further ideas and comments. Other times, you come up with a question that's slightly different than the original one so you start a new thread. And, as Sharku suggests, it's helpful to put in a link referring people to the earlier topic.

Just think about this....people have been discussing authors like Homer and Shakespeare for hundreds or thousands of years, and I have a feeling they're still going to be discussing these authors a long time in the future! No one is saying that there's no more to discuss.

The real issue is not that we've exhausted all possible topics. It's a question of using your imagination and brains to come up with a slightly different approach or view. And you don't have a Ph.d. in Tolkienology to do this! Ask yourself a creative "what if" question and post it in Novices and Newcomers, something that's not been done to death before. All it takes is some imagination.

Or, go out and read something Tolkien wrote that you haven't looked at before, something other than LotR. UT and most of HoMe, for example, are now available in small paperback format. Buy one of these or get it at your libary. Then compare Tolkien's writings in LotR or Silm with what you see in the volume of HoMe you're reading: you should have no trouble coming up with questions that haven't been discussed here before.

I guess an honest answer would be this. If you just want to skim things lightly, without giving it too much effort, then a lot of the obvious questions have already been posted on this site. But, if you're willing to stand back a minute and invest a little of yourself--maybe even read something new, you can and will come up with new ideas.