Not to sound (what's the word?) illiterate ;p but how many books is the lord of the rings? Is it one BIIIG book, or like 5 books or what? Heard a lot about it of course, but nothing really definite. Hehe Actually "nothing definite" means I heard the name "Gandalf" once or twice.

[This message has been edited by R'syil (edited April 16, 2001).]

It was originally sold as a trilogy (three books for you illiterates ;) ) "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The Return of the King". These days you can buy a single book that has all three in it.

the single book has exactly 1192 pages including the appendixes. talk about intimadating when i was trying to read it when i was 9...

Don't forget The Hobbit. I know it's not really part of the trilogy, but it is a prelude.

Now for my confession for the day. I still haven't read Lord of the Rings. *Gasp* It's on my bookshelf collecting dust but damn it, I vow to read it before the end of the year. I think I need to go seek some counselling.

I bought the Collected edition. Whoa, took me a looong time to read it.

Has anyone read the Silmarillion? Talk about pre-quel's, this one goes back to the formation of the world. It reads the way Gandalf's Bible would read, with old Kings, heros and gods.

Very interesting. It mostly shows how much heart and thought Tolkien put into his world.

Definitely read this last (as it's length and attention to detail may kill you!!! ;))

The Hobbit is a good introduction to Middle-Earth, and the 3 books in the Lord of the Rings will be a good follow-up.

If you can't wade through the books, try these books on tape. As I've said before, these stories are based on folk lore, and meant to be TOLD, even SUNG sometimes. IMHO, Listening to them will add new dimensions to the text.

Definitely read the Silmarillion AFTER reading Lord of the Rings. It won't make much sense otherwise. (Slappy, could you look up a previous topic that we had on this subject in Whatnots and post a link to it? ;) )

As for the full one-volume book of Lord of the Rings... There are two editions of that currently. The one I have with the mostly green cover page with Gandalf on it has about 1150 pages with maps included. There was a brand new version recently released in the USA though, which is also different but includes the whole thing.

Check out http://www.sorcerers.net/Books/index_tolk.htm for more info.

[This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited April 16, 2001).]

I've got the trilogy...
And if anyone hasn't read the Lord of the Rings and is thinking of doing so then make sure you read The Hobbit first to get the background to the whole plot.

I'm with Tal, don't read the Silmarillion until you have finished the 3 LotR books. I think the Hobbit is a good intro and not a hard read, but for a really dense read try the Unfinished Tales. Now that is like a text book on Middle Earth. I'm into details but fantasy read should not be painful...

For Christmas last year, I received a collectors' edition of the Simarillion. The art work was fantastic, but it is still painful to read!

I agree with the group:

Go with thr Hobbit first, then Lord of the Rings, then Simarillion!

Good flow that way.

Has anyone read the two epic poems Tolkien wrote? The 4000 and 6000 line ones?

Don't forget the biography by Humphrey Carpenter. There you can read how possessed this man worked on details of his world.

I couldn't get through the Silmarillion, it read too much like a history book. :(

Defnitely Silmarillion doesn't read like a comics.
Read LOTR, then The Hobbit, then Silmarillion, then after about a year's break I took ALL Middlearth books and read them through:
1) Silmarillion
2) Hobbit
3) LOTR
4) Ring of Darkness (sequel by Perumov - Rusian writer).

It was a best read ever. The second best was reading all Asimov's Foundation Sagas in one go, and the third one was Harrisson's Stainless Steel Rat.
When I want to read smth I go to one of my friends: he used to spend all his spare money (for 5 years) on good books. I come to his place with a large bag and say smth like this: "Give me Dave Duncan" and take smth like 7 books :D

Yea, Carpenter's biography is a definitely a must too. Excellent book.

i read the first part of the trilogy and I am trying to find the other two - can U still buy em seperately?

Yep, but at the time the paperback is in reprint (don't know the right term) and hard to get.

hool, check the link I posted above. You can get them all separately at Amazon if you want.