When I was in 7th grade in 1977 a lovely young girl handed me a copy of The Hobbit, because she thought I would like it. I did and quickly read LOTR. I joined The Book of the Month Club that year because new members received a wonderful deluxe set of Tolkien hardback books, including The Hobbit in a slip case, a boxed set of LOTR, the first American edition of The Silmarillion, that had just been published that year, Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, and The Tolkien Companion. I have been reading and collecting Tolkien books ever since. I sadly cannot remember the girl's name. I sometimes wish I could, so I could thank her.
