MetamorphosisSigma wrote: 'cause they were fortuitously out of the first book (the 1st hundred pages or so of which I still find difficult to wade through).

There's a real difference to the structure & pacing of Book I (first half of Fellowship) vs. Books II-VI (after the mission to Mordor has been defined). I wonder if it wouldn't be better to publish these as six volumes.

FormCritic wrote:Or you could be like me and read books like The Coming of The Shadow, and the volumes that follow.  They are not the stories.  They are about the manuscripts and Tolkien's writing of the stories.

Different perspectives like that lead to different editorial/publishing decisions, which is why I hope that Tolkien publishing survives for the long term. Some of HOME is polished writing, stuff which complements the canonical material. Some is written in a different but readable style. Other passages are best read for the evolution of the work. However it is currently a big mess, one which could stand some sorting out.

sauromatian wrote:
Different perspectives like that lead to different editorial/publishing decisions, which is why I hope that Tolkien publishing survives for the long term. Some of HOME is polished writing, stuff which complements the canonical material. Some is written in a different but readable style. Other passages are best read for the evolution of the work. However it is currently a big mess, one which could stand some sorting out.

Oh, there's a History of Middle-earth index volume available in the UK (PoD unfortunately, but can be ordered through amazon.co.uk last I checked). That might help. I don't have it so I can't say if it's any good.

Not sure how the material could be organized any better. It's a big fat mess by its very nature. Plus, since CRRT is in his eighties, I doubt he'll ever attempt the sorting out you desire. With the advent of the HoMe volumes via PoD (which means they'll likely remain in print indefinitely) I doubt anyone else will tackle the problem either. Maybe some English professor in a hundred years or so will make an attempt...

sauromatian wrote:
I believe these are sold as gifty boxed sets, rather than individual volumes. Yet the value of doing it that way would be accessibility for readers new to Tolkien, so that someone could pick up just one & it's not a ginormous tome.

The new Hobbit movies appear to have content from Unfinished Tales, as well as the LotR appendices. Maybe it will prompt a more organized edition of that material?

Yeah, it was sold as one set. What's the point, really, in reading only part of a novel?  

I looked up the PoD versions of the hardcover HoMe volumes on amazon.co.uk. Looks like they're not longer available, including the index ...already. Guess that was a bust.

sauromatian wrote:
Because it's human nature. You said you found the early bits in Hobbiton uninteresting, while I've heard other people describe how they lost interest at other points: the long introductions at Lothlorien & Theoden's court, the endless wandering in circles with Smeogal, etcetera ad (almost literally) nauseum.

Whether or not we should appreciate Tolkien by reading everything, some would choose to read only parts before losing interest, or would decide that Book I & Book V are cool but not bother with the rest. If that's what it takes to get the maximum amount of people reading it, then that's how it should be handled -at least in terms of the variety of editions available. With less paper publishing likely in the future, fewer options will exist.

I was ten when I read The Two Towers first, and it was only by necessity. Presumably I would've made it through The Fellowship of the Ring had it been available; I just find the first book a little less engaging than the rest. Remember, I did eventually (the next week, actually) pick up Fellowship and read it.

I would never advocate (or even condone) people reading bits and pieces of novels without the intention reading the rest. That's lazy, short attention span-theater type crap. They don't feel like reading this or that bit? Fuck 'em. They have to buy the whole book anyway   .

That being said, there are numerous books I've read a portion of and decided weren't worth finishing (The Stand, Ulysses, pretty much every religious text I've ever encountered, etc.).

As the saying goes, "This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force."

For some, The Lord of the Rings is one of those books. And I'm okay with that. What I can't stand is people who've just seen the movies and consider themselves fans. And if someone told me, "I've read books II, IV, and VI, but just couldn't get into the rest," I'd have a hard time not laughing.

Badmike wrote:Why not? I'm a fan of the movie Bladerunner but find Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" not one of my favorites.  There's plenty of people who have seen the latest Batman/Spiderman/XMen flicks who have never picked up a comic book.  

I have no problem with this sort of thing in general, just with Tolkien. It was the first fantasy novel I read (unless you count some ERB Tarzan and Jules Verne, which I had read earlier), and I had/have an extreme emotional attachment (i.e., unjustified feeling of "ownership"). Newbies watching a movie for a couple hours and then proclaiming themselves fans just gets under my skin--it's not rational. A good analogy might be someone who picked up 4th ed. D&D and then announces they're a grognard ...

I can totally see liking Bladerunner but not loving Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Although both are great and I enjoy them each on their own terms, the relationship between the two is tenuous.

The Hobbit films, unfortunately, seem to be going the way of Conan... no relation whatsoever to the book. Don't get me wrong, I'll see it (unlike the latest Conan attempt), but I expect to be outraged.

So seldom is justice actually done:

http://gma.yahoo.com/amanda-knox-is-innocent.html

Foxy Knoxy is back in circulation, guys!

Mike B.

FormCritic wrote:Justice....sort of.

4+ years of Knox and Sollecito's lives stolen by incompetent and unethical prosecutors and police.

In what is hopefully the case's final irony, Knox is convicted of defamation for signing the confession the police threatened, coerced and tricked out of her.  The guy the police first wanted to falsely accuse won his case against Knox for falsely accusing him.

It's the end of a humiliating scenario for the Italian justice system...which ends up looking hopelessly cartoonish.  I hope Knox is already out of the country and winging her way back to the Land of Freedom.

Well, she's traded four years in prison for lots of money and fame....book deals, talk shows, etc. It was amazing when all the evidence was finally laid out what an absolute joke of a case the Italian police had against her (no DNA evidence, no motive, coerced testimony), especially when they kept telling the media they had evidence that would blow the case wide open (they didn't).  

Mike B.

Money will buy you justice in the United States as well.  (Although rich people go to jail all the time in this country.)

The difference is that nationalism and cynical corruption won't get you injustice...probably.