Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings

M

MistyMountain

Lorien
Hello all,
I thought I perhaps should post this in the Reading Room but, as this book was not written by Tolkien AND because I thought the work so incredibly bad and not worthy of discussion in the RR, I thought I'd post a little comment here. Well, I am sure most of you have known about this book for some time but never mention it because it is so horrible. The author ostensibly is a huge LOTR fan and purports to have read the books. However, when you read her summarization of the plot of the trilogy, you will wonder if she ever read them at all! There are many mistakes, much of them simple factual errors (i.e., calling Eowyn Theoden's daughter). Ack! I couldn't get through the rest of the silly book after that. I feel bad since a kindly customer of my cafe came in with three old Tolkien books to give me (miraculously none of which I owned) and I will be adding this particular book to my "FREE BOOK" section in my cafe. [unsure]

Misty Mountain
 
...posted this in the Reading Room, where there is sometimes discussion of books and articles about rather than by Tolkien, but Main is fine too.

Wikipedia notes that this 1969 book by Lin Carter (who was a "he", by the way) was "among the earliest full-length critical works devoted to Tolkien's fantasies" and so it may have been more influential than later, more worthy studies. I've only skimmed it once. The wikipedia entry sees some merit in Carter's analysis.

What were the other two books you received?
 
1) The Tolkien Reader
2) Smith of Wooten Major & Farmer Giles of Ham

I am embarrassed to admit I have never read any of his shorter stories. I've read Farmer Giles now and am in the middle of Smith. I like them both, of course [:)]
 
I like Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major very much. When you're finished, you should post some more on your reactions to them, either here or in the Reading Room.
 
Both of those books! The Reader also includes "Farmer Giles", but it also has his essay "On Fairy-stories", and the poignant "Leaf by Niggle", as well as an interesting collection of poetry.

But the Lin Carter book - yes, either the "Free Book" shelf, or who knows, it might have some value on eBay...[:P]
 
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