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... I thought the return of Gandalf was why it was called Return of the King... of course I must have been 11 or so...

Now I have just purchased the leatherbound 50th anniversary edition of LOTR all in one volume published exactly the way Tolkien originally wanted it!!! Looking forward to reading it after I do the Silmarillion again and maybe Lost Tales to give me more perspective...

Sean wrote: "Now I have just purchased the leatherbound 50th anniversary edition of LOTR all in one volume published exactly the way Tolkien originally wanted it!!! Looking forward to reading it after I do the ..."

Your very lucky! I do love The Silmarillion and enjoy reading the history of Middle-Earth, as it is so facinating.

The first time I read LotR was when I was 14. I'd asked for the deluxe boxed edition for Christmas and knew that my dad had received it and hidden it away somewhere. One weekend before the holidays when he was out, I managed to find it ("hidden" in the wardrobe - not very secret, nor very safe!) and read the first 200 or so pages in a sitting. I had to return it to it's hidey-hole and promised myself I wouldn't read any more of it before Christmas Day, which I didn't.

I've never had any other edition, and probably never will. This is my most treasured book. As the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ record had no cover image for this volume when I first added it to my shelf, the one you see now is a scan of my very own copy :-D

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

The first time that i read The Lord of the Rings was when i was around 10/11 years old, and before i had encountered JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. (I was about Harry's age 11 when i read her book, so Tolkien was definately before that). It began a love for the fantasy genre whilst making me fall in love with Tolkien's creation of Middle-Earth (i kept looking in Atlas' in school thinking that i would find Middle-Earth somewhere; believing it to be real!). My copy was an old paperback that is now quite faded, but remains the most prized and special of all my copies of this book.

When I first finished The Lord of the Rings, I was eight (began when I was still seven), and I proceeded to try to create novels, short stories, and languages of my own. I'm now an aspiring novelist and studying to become a linguist.

I read it in sixth grade, I think, I was 11 then. It was after I watched the first movie a dozen times. My first copy of LOTR was leather-bound collectors' edition of every tome and appendixes in one. It was painfully expensive, I remember begging my mom to buy it and then we read it together.

The first time I read LoTR, I was in middle school. I was a shy kid, but for the first time in my life I wanted to write to the author and tell him how much his work meant to me. So I asked the school librarian for help. She researched (this was back in the days of card catalogues, youngsters), and in a couple of days, which I had spent thinking excitedly of what I wanted to tell him, she told me that unfortunately he had died the fall before. I missed him by a year. :(

I still wonder how the librarian found the information. Was there a book with a listing of author info or something; did she call the publisher? How did we manage in the days before the internet?

Oh that would be so sad. I saw the first movie when I was nine and had no idea it was based off a book, or that there were two more. I didn't know that the guy who wrote the "Hobbit" (which I had been listening to for a few years) was the same guy who wrote th eLORT trilogy, so I was a pretty clueless nine year old. I didn;t find out till I ten that there was a trilogy and as soon as I found that out I tried to read them. Sadly it was above my reading levela t the time and I didn't succefully read then till I was 14, although I heard them on CD a year before. I tried to start reading the Silmarllian when I was 13 and it took me five years to get all the way through it. I wish I had started with some of Tolkiens easier to read books, like "Tales from the Perilous Realm".

I didn't dare touch The Silmarillion until I was over 15. I bought it for my 15th birthday, but then completely forgot about it and read it half a year ago. I'm glad I didn't read it sooner, it would've been too much for a kid's mind.
The one book I will never read is The Children of Hurin. The excerpts from the story of Turin in Unfinished Tales and Silmarillion is so heavy I barely got over it.

I first read LOTR a few weeks before the first movie was released. I had heard of the novels for the longest time but hearing that a film adaptation was coming out prompted me to finally check out the books. From there I read The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. I've been meaning to revisit The Silmarillion, I don't think I quite appreciated the style that Tolkien had written it in though I was amazed by the scope and detail of the stories.

Sean wrote: "Now I have just purchased the leatherbound 50th anniversary edition of LOTR all in one volume published exactly the way Tolkien originally wanted it!!! Looking forward to reading it after I do the ..."

I have that edition. I LOVE the map!

I think it has one in the front and one in the back doesn't it? Also the main map was printed in black and red, the colors Tolkien wanted it in, and it is an enormous fold out map!!! Probably the best book I own.

You folks that tackled and completed the Silmarillion as teens must really be rocket scientists! I didn't get through it til I was in my forties! I'm very impressed.

I think I messed up by reading it so early, I need to read read. Even though it took me five years to get through it a lot of it went over my head and most of the beautiful story's were ruined because I could not keep everyone straight.

I read Lord of the rings when I was 11 years old. I bought whole trilogy, and than found Hobbit in the library. For a while I though that Tolkien is the best author in the world.

What do you mean, "for a while"? ;-)

Michael wrote: "What do you mean, "for a while"? ;-)"

??

Lucinda wrote: "Michael wrote: "What do you mean, "for a while"? ;-)"

??"

Ieva said that, "For a while I though that Tolkien is the best author in the world," and I was attempting to be humorous about it. Sadly, I'm frequently less funny than I think I am ;-) (That's another attempt.)

I'd wanted to read LOTR since I was, like-- 10? or somewhere around that age. However every time I started, I just couldn't get past the first few chapters: I would get bored, find myself scanning etc... In the end, with great reluctance, I just gave up.

Then last year, as I was going about my normal, mundane life, the urge to read LOTR hit me, so close to literally that I practically felt it like a slap in the face. I seized the book and devoured it in a week or so.

Sometimes, I guess, you just need to wait until a book is... ripe, for lack of a better word (which is another topic altogether). Anyway, that's my happy story. Carry on.
:)

When i was younger i likewise did have difficulty in understanding a lot of the Lord of the Rings, especially because it took me so long to read it & then re-read it. It was not until i was about 14 or more did it begin to sink-in, and i began to see why Tolkien was such a genius.

My Grandson, the voracious reader, turned instead to the Rick Riordan Olympus series when he was ten. He really enjoyed it, but hasn't read any fantasy since! Now there's sports and girls, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

Tolkien is very challenging to read. He is so deep and the way he phrases things make you really work to understand what he is saying. A lot like Dickens. When I was 7 I was enjoying the Hobbit and as I grow older I am still enjoying it and the main reason is as I get older I get more of the jokes, the words become almost music instead of just a story, and the true brillience of how Tolkien was telling the story comes home to me as I attmept to wrtie. He was just incredible.

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Tolkien is very challenging to read. He is so deep and the way he phrases things make you really work to understand what he is saying. A lot like Dickens. When I was 7 I was enjoying the Hobbit and..."

Totally agree with you. The more i read his work the more i notice & understand the little details, and apreciate the vast scale of brilliance of his creation.

I read The Hobbit and LOTR in my early 20s in what seems eons ago, or was it yesterday. On my first go, I was amazed but also lost and confused because so much happened on the journey that is so unlike other books. The 2nd time, I fell in love with my favorite place - Hobbiton. For some reason it felt warm, welcoming and a place I'd love to call home. In Hobbit, I remembered hating the adventure away from home and back again. Same in LOTR but the travel back in ROTK was sweet and heart wrenching!

That's the feeling I recall most vividly from every reading in over 20 years. Loved the in-between but deeply in love with the front and end!

Donald wrote: "I read The Hobbit and LOTR in my early 20s in what seems eons ago, or was it yesterday. On my first go, I was amazed but also lost and confused because so much happened on the journey that is so u..."

I am quite a home loving person, so i would not mind staying in a Hobbit Hole!

I also thought Hobbiton was like a great utopia when I was a kid... the perfect place to live.

Well yeah, you get to eat like eight times a day! What is not to like, not to mention running around barefoot and living in a hole in the hill. A hole people!! A freaking hole, how cool is that!

I also liked Hobbiton

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Well yeah, you get to eat like eight times a day! What is not to like, not to mention running around barefoot and living in a hole in the hill. A hole people!! A freaking hole, how cool is that!

I..."What about second breakfast!

You get breakfast, second breakfast, elevsise, lunchon, afternoon tea, dinner and super! So seven.

and don't forget pipe weed...longbottom leaf!

Hmmm, howcould one forget so important a detail?!

I have just started reading the fellowship of the ring today and it's my 27th birthday. I'm excited about getting into it!!

First time i read LOTR i struggled with first 50 pages or so. The book just didn't captivate me on a first page. The chapter with Tom Bombadil warmed me up to it (and so did Rivendell & Lothlorien), but it was the second book with whom I fell in love with.

I can honestly see myself happily married to a horse lord.

The first time I read tLotR I was sixteen and it took me 6 day - it captured me; i read dawn to dusk and, when I finished it, I wanted more.

So, after a while, I read the Silmarillion

hooray for ALL the readers, first time, until 17th time. I think Christopher Lee said he reads it all every year. One might as well memorize it all! (Farenheit 491) !

If I were in "Farenheit 491" I would memorize "The Hobbit". I have a practically the first chapter anyways.

First time I read LotR I was 12. My Primary school had a tradition of giving each student finishing Grade 6 a book as a going-away/graduation present. My best friend and I had both asked for this as our book but were a bit worried they'd say no as it was "three" books. Thankfully this before the multi-volume fantasy brick had taken off and the Librarian said it was technically one book so yes.

On learning of my new gift my Grandfather loaned me his copy of The Complete Guide to Middle Earth. Oh what a hole I fell into. Reading Lord of the Rings took me nearly a year because many nights I wouldn't actually read any of the novel, I'd just be cross-referencing names and places in the Guide.

I've read it many times since but that was being thrown in the deep end. Thankfully my Grandfather provided the snorkel. :-)

I think I was around 10 or 11. Most often by the time I finished Fellowship I'd just start it again from the beginning. It was my favorite. Before the halfling's weed clouded my brain I had it largely memorized.

Yet I've always also been sort of clueless. I debated often with myself which two towers did he mean??

I started reading LOTR and The Hobbit only 2 months ago when the movie came out. I wish I had read them earlier. It was like I missed out something really meaningful in the first 25 years of my life (it may sound exaggerated but I do feel this way)

Mary wrote: "I started reading LOTR and The Hobbit only 2 months ago when the movie came out. I wish I had read them earlier. It was like I missed out something really meaningful in the first 25 years of my lif..."

I know what you mean. I was a little late in my exposure to some 'classical works' in lit. Tolkien wasn't one of them, but I think I know what you mean.

the first time i read it was when i was looking for a birthday present for a friend. this was a good few years before the movies came out. i was in the bookstore and saw a copy of all 3 books with a picture of gandalf on the cover. i picked it up and read the back and flicked through it a bit. it got the impression that the lord of the rings was a really great, well loved book. i had read the hobbit when i was in primary school, and had started to read fellowship of the ring, but had gotten to the bit when the dark rider first appeared and got creeped out and stopped!
but this time around i was an adult and so i bought the lord of the rings for my friends birthday. and after that i went and got myself a copy too. its the box set where the books are divided into 7 volumes (the seventh being the appendices). they are cherished possessions of mine, which i still treasure today on my bookshelf! :)
anyway, i read the books back then.. and fell in love with it. i remember going everywhere with the book in my hand. by the time i had finished it, i felt like i had gone on an adventure. there was an incredible bittersweet feeling for me when i read the last page.... it was incredible. there were so many moments during the story when i thought.. wow.. this is so good! truly ahead of its time!
i loved that story! and then the movies came along and loved them too :) and now we have the hobbit movies to look forward to.. .. its going to a good few years ahead! :D

Hi, I've never seen the set with the appendixes separate. Is it still for sale?

Hey vanessa! I just did a search and think ive found it on amazon. It is called the millenium edition.
Heres a link, hope it works


I bought mine many years ago, and it was paperback, but in the same box. These say they are hardcover, but looks pretty much the same. I love them! They look really good and i enjoy reading it in these small easy to hold volumes :)

I have to be extremely honest! I saw the movies first partly because of my mum and she used to watch it every week-end,and I was like "Mum, stop watching this movie". It wasn't very long when I started liking it, but as I went on I began to fall in love with them. My mother introduced the books to me. I have read the Hobbit and when I read it the second time, it was after I watched the film in the cinema twice, and I cried at the ending of the book,at the death of three of my favourite characters. But the first books I read from the Tolkien section, was the Lord of the Rings and now currently I am reading it for a second time,but to me it feels I read them to many times, since I know to much for a person that only read the books once(reading them a second time now) and watched the movies to many times and getting more Tolkien knowledge everyday.

My dad read me the entire trilogy when I was nine. A few chapters a night, it took months. It's one of my favorite memories of us together, because he never did things like that, he just isn't a big reader. I envy people reading it for the first time, I remember how upset I was when Gandalf fell and how scared I was of the ringwraiths and how happy I was when the ring was finally destroyed. It was palpable relief. I still feel those things every time, but there was something so powerful about that first time, probably because my dad was sharing something he really loved with me as much as the text itself.

I read the Silmarillion at the age of 12. It was a gift from my grandmother.

To be honest, I was easily able to relate the theology that I read inside of the book with that of the christian bible, and its creation theory. I enjoyed the war of the lamps, and especially enjoyed it when They finally threw Morgoth into the door of night. My favorite character in it would possibly be Tulkas, as he was titled "Champion of the Valar".

I don't really remember much about my first read through. It was in sixth grade and I had found the Hobbit on the classroom bookshelf. Right after I finished it and moved on to Fellowship, my teacher announced that we would be reading the Hobbit and doing a play of it. I was an elf and a spider. I don't think I had seen the movies because I don't think my mom would have let me at that age but I'm not sure. I have read lotr all the way through about four times but I look through it and read bits and pieces so much that half the cover has fallen off of what used to be my Dad's book. I agree that hobbiton feels very homey but when I think of the perfect place to live I think of Imladris. Through all the big emotional things that happened in the books I was fine but when they cut down the party tree I cried. I wish they could have fit that part into the movies.

I read LOTR for the first time when I was fourteen, in the summer between middle school and Lyceum. I saw the films and I liked them, so I decided to read the books, and definitively fell in love for Tolkien!