Why do you read HoME?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by mark12_30

In the early seventies I had the psychedelically-bordered map of Middle-Earth on my wall, and I used to gaze with great longing at the Ered Luin. There was an elvish air about them, sketched, hinted at, remote and unknown and wreathed in mystery.

I've collected most if not all of HoME, and have opened each book, and read a fair amount if not all of most of them. But the tale (and poem) I return to again and again is The Cottage of Lost Play. There is an innocence and mystery about it, and about Kortirion; a dreamy longing, sensucht, what could be, like the misty Ered Luin on the far western edge of the map. It is that that I love the most about Tolkien. And when LOTR feels too finished and packaged and done, and I want the mystery and the desire again, I can go to the cottage by the shore, or to Kortirion, for the hint of something ancient and filled with longing

Mark's comment here hits it right for me as well. BoLT 1 and 2 are fascinating reads for me. Although I've read the scholarly apparatus, I usually just skip it to enjoy Tolkien Sr's storytelling.

I've dipped in and out of the other volumes, some I haven't read yet, but largely the attraction of HoMe to me is either the enjoyment of Tolkien's early writing or the acquisition of context/information to help understand the other texts. It really is a privilege and a joy to be able to see how Tolkien's writing was created.