My Tolkien Reading List

I had a friend who had amassed an impressive collection of “Magic the Gathering” cards - being an organised fellow he typed up a list of all the cards, broken down by category. He later admitted he got more pleasure from having and reading the list than from the cards themselves. Hopefully I won’t quite end up there, as I do actually want to read all of these, but here’s my own list, of the Tolkien section of my bookshelves…

(Some of the categorisation is a bit arbitrary here and you could argue for inclusion elsewhere, but I’m going with this for now.)

The Legendarium

• “The Hobbit” paperback, Harper Collins 1999 paperback
• “The Annotated Hobbit”, (Douglas Anderson), hardback Allen & Unwin 1989
• “The Hobbit” Amazon eBook

• “The Hobbit” Audible Audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis

• “The Illustrated Hardback Box set” (4 volumes, Hobbit & Lord of the Rings) Harper Collins 2020, illustrated by Alan Lee (Kept for best!)
• “The Lord of the Rings” single volume paperback, Harper Collins 2005, red cover (for everyday reading)
• “The Lord of the Rings” single volume Amazon eBook
• “The Fellowship of the Ring” Audible Audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis
• “The Two Towers” Audible Audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis

• “The Return of the King” Audible Audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis

• “The Silmarillion”, illustrated by Ted Nasmith, Harper Collins 2021 hardback

• “The Children of Hurin”, Harper Collins, 2014 paperback

• “Unfinished Tales”, illustrated by Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith, Harper Collins 2020 hardback
• “Unfinished Tales”, Harper Collins 2010 paperback

Middle Earth Reference

• “The Atlas of Middle Earth”, Karen Wynn Fonstad, Harper Collins 2016 paperback
• “The J.R.R Tolkien Companion and Guide” (3 volumes), Harper Collins, 2017 boxed hardbacks
• “The Lord of the Rings, A Reader’s Companion”, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, Harper Collins 2014 hardback
• “The Complete Tolkien Companion”, J.E.A. Tyler, Macmillan 2022 hardback
• “The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkien’s World”, Antony Cummins, Watkins 2023 hardback

The Writing Process

• “The History of the Hobbit”, John D. Rateliff, Harper Collins, 2001 Hardback
• “The History of Middle Earth” (12 books in 3 volumes), ed. Christopher Tolkien, Harper Collins 2002 boxed hardbacks
• “The Nature of Middle Earth” ed. Carl Hostetter, Harper Collins 2023 paperback

Biographies

• “J.R.R. Tolkien”, Humphrey Carpenter, Harper Collins, 2016 paperback
• “Tolkien and the Great War”, John Garth, Harper Collins, 2004 paperback
• “The Inklings”, Humphrey Carpenter, Harper Collins, 2006 paperback 1983
• “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien - Revised and Expanded”, Humphrey Carpenter, 2023 hardback
• “J.R.R. Tolkien - Author of the Century”, Tom Shippey, Harper Collins 2022 paperback
• “The Road to Middle Earth “, Tom Shippey, Harper Collins, 2005 paperback

Academic Works and Criticism

• “Tolkien and the West”, Prof. Michael Drout, The Modern Scholar 2012 Audiobook
• “Splintered Light”, Verlyn Flieger, Kent State University Press, 1982 paperback
• “Meditations on Middle Earth”, ed. Karen Haber, Earthlight 2002 paperback
• “Mythgard’s Exploring The Lord of the Rings”

Popular Criticism and Guides

• “Twenty First Century Tolkien”, Nick Groom, Atlantic Books 2022 hardback
• “The Making of Middle Earth”, Christopher Snyder, Union Square & Co. 2022 hardback
• “Why We Love Middle Earth”, Shawn Marchese and Alan Sisto, Mango Publishing 2023 paperback
• “Anything You Can Imagine - Peter Jackson and the making of Middle Earth”, Ian Nathan Harper Collins 2019 paperback
• “The Real Middle Earth”, Brian Bates, Pan Macmillan 2022 paperback
• “The Prancing Pony Podcast”

Other Works by Tolkien

• “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Harper Collins 2021 paperback
• “Beowulf, A Translation and Commentary”, Harper Collins 2016 paperback
• “Tales from the Perilous Realm” (5 books in 1 volume) Harper Collins 2008 paperback
• “The Monster and the Critics and other Essays” Harper Collins 2006 paperback