[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

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.