Kevin's Watch

I have Lord of the Rings, but I'd love to have this edition of it, anyway.

I'm always on the lookout for a really nice edition of LOTR. This one looks pretty cool. I've seen similar illustrations in other books, but don't know who the artist was. Could've been Alan Lee--love the illustrations.

I want the hard cover version with the original J. R. R. Tolkien sketches. They are very kewl.

Sum sui generis
Vs

This is the book I wish for:

Man, I had a tough time with the movie. Hopefully the book was great.

It probably never ends, kind of like Finnegans Wake.

In other news, my hardcover copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls is on the way, a book which I consider my all-time favorite, despite that I only checked it out once at the library.

We got a nice hardbound set of LOTR shortly before the first movie came out.

Before that, all we had was my 1970's vintage, falling-apart paperbacks.

Mr Fixit wrote:Man, I had a tough time with the movie. Hopefully the book was great.

Oh, come on, how could have a tough time with "Boxie" from Battlestar Galactica riding on a giant fish-scaled flying dog?

The book is great--there's a lot more depth to the first half of the story, which they made the movie out of, and there's an entire second half, which moviemakers ignored completely, that explains what happens to Bastian in Fantasia after he re-creates it. He actually turns into a horribly snotty little prig for a while, and redeems himself at the end. It's worth a look.

I have four early editions of LotR, including the rare, outlawed Ace paperbacks, which Tolkien encouraged readers to avoid.

Roland of Gilead wrote:I have four early editions of LotR, including the rare, outlawed Ace paperbacks, which Tolkien encouraged readers to avoid.

Why were they outlawed?

Tolkien's official paperback publisher in the States was Ballantine. Somehow Ace had also published an edition of the trilogy, and I don't think Tolkien was getting any money from them. On the backs of the Ballantine editions, he had a quote (which I'm loosely paraphrasing) that said, in effect, if you have any respect for living authors, you will buy the Ballantine edition. Since I have the Ballantine edition, too, I didn't feel all that guilty for picking up the rare Ace editions for a great price. They're worth much more now than I paid for them.

It was one of those weird situations that probably couldn't happen these days.

My wishlist?

All the Asimov Foundation and Robot books in hardback.

All the Reed Stephens Man Who books in hardcover.

LOTR and Hobbit in Hardcover.

The last Chronicles of TC in hardcover.

Roland of Gilead wrote:Tolkien's official paperback publisher in the States was Ballantine. Somehow Ace had also published an edition of the trilogy, and I don't think Tolkien was getting any money from them. On the backs of the Ballantine editions, he had a quote (which I'm loosely paraphrasing) that said, in effect, if you have any respect for living authors, you will buy the Ballantine edition.

Which is why early editions of Bored of the Rings had a notice on the back saying, 'Those who approve of courtesy to a certain other living author will not touch this gobbler with a ten-foot battle lance.'

Classic.

Variol, that quote you mention is why I first bought Bored of the Rings. That absolutely cracked me up back in the early seventies.