Here's my opinion on
The Soddit:
Visual impression - The book looks great! The dust cover has a red, leather-like background print (quite appropriate for an excerpt from the "Red Book of Westmarch"
), with a very amusing drawing of the characters on front. The map at the beginning is one of my favorite parts - I enjoy reading the names of the places! For example, there's Rororo Hryorboat, and a group of trees marked 'Tiger Woods'. The black and white drawings by Douglas Carrel are great.
The writing is amusing, though not side-splitting. At 328 pages, the story is a bit long, since it can't hold up to the original. There are funny plays on words and names, and the plot twists are interesting - the group of dwarves diminishes considerably during the trip, which has a completely different purpose than in the original story, though the dwarves staunchly claim that the purpose of the journey is only "gold". Though I enjoyed the book, somehow it wasn't able to fascinate me. I can't put my finger on any one thing that bothered me, but as a whole it lacked that special something.
Is it worth buying? Probably, for completists like myself, who want as many Tolkien-related books as possible. It'll look nice on my bookshelf, and I may take it out to page through it occasionally. I'm not sure I want to read it again though.