So what editions of the books do you have?

[Emmie]

A long time ago I used to have the three Lord of the Rings books in hardcover with covers like attachment #1.

I really like the way they looked - and it's also cool that they have zero mention of the movies on them. I don't remember why I got rid of them.

I'm plenty happy with the boxed LOTR set that I have now, though (third attachment) and my matching copy of The Hobbit (second attachment) since they're larger and have lots of beautiful Alan Lee illustrations. And Alan Lee signed all four of the books when I went to hear him talk.

What about you all?

[Thalivagoriel]

Little by little I bought most Tolkien books in that black edition which unfortunately they stopped producing. I've got the trilogy, the Silmarillion, the Unfinished Tales, The Hobbit, Roverandom, and Tales from the perilous Realm, plus a Tolkien biography in a similar edition.
I also have one paperback with the trilogy and pictures of the movies on the cover which I had bough first, the trilogy in German, a box with the Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales in German and The Hobbit in French. ^^

[Nilfy]

I only have LotR and The Hobbit myself, in Norwegian editions. They're both hardcover, and have a pretty artwork and gold linings. I don't have any picture of it though.

[Dianora]

I have a Croatian translation of The Hobbit, which is quite lovely. I used to have the humongous paperback edition of LOTR (the one with Howe's Gandalf on the cover), but my constant leafing ruined it, so I recently bought on sale this edition of Hobbit and LoTR from Houghton Mifflin.
I've got two copies of Silmarillion, one paperback with John Howe's "The Fall of Gondolin" illustration, the other one that I've translated myself.
And I also have a copy of The Children of Hurin, which I'm ashamed to say, I still haven't gotten around to reading. Bad me... :o

[tanhuan]

I have a newer edition of the trilogy and the Hobbit that has come out since the movies. I also have a newer edition of several other Tolkien books, such as The Lost Road, History of Middle Earth, Unfinished Tales, etc. I have 'The War of the Ring' also. My original copies of the trilogy and Hobbit, which were the first I ever read, are very, very old and practically disintegrating. I'm not sure how old they are, but they were my aunt's when she started reading them in the 70's.

[Crichton]

I have one and only Polish edition of LoTR by Swiat Ksiazki, the Polish book club - I don't have anything to make a shot so I will just say that it's unique edition with ornaments and original pictures, hard cover. Quite old with second Polish translation (the worse translation that the first but who cares, I just love my edition of LoTR).

My Hobbit is very very old with quite ugly cover but it's hard cover and I have first (better) translation so I don't buy other, newer Hobbit.

[Emmie]

I'm curious, have you ever read LOTR in English? I know there are a few French and German and Russian novels that I would love to be able to read in their original language.

[Crichton]

Only in Polish - Tolkien prose is full of descriptions and I find difficult to read and understand them in English. But maybe later, when I will finish my English classes, why not :)

[Clarett]

I've got one Czech edition with translate by Stanislava Pošustová (She's absolutely AMAZING! XD) and cover sheet by Pavel Sivko. For example:
http://www.daemon.cz/img/obal/hirez/1308.jpg
http://www.daemon.cz/img/obal/hirez/1311.jpg (Roverandom)
http://www.fantasyshop.cz/gfx/upload/fs_on_2002_4_2_17_42_9.jpg (RotK)

[Niniel]

I've got both Norwegian and English editions of LOTR. I also have The Hobbit, Silmarillion, Bilbos Last Song, The War of the Ring and The Hildren of Húrin, all in english.

[jimmyboy]

I've got both Norwegian and English editions of LOTR. I also have The Hobbit, Silmarillion, Bilbos Last Song, The War of the Ring and The Hildren of Húrin, all in english.
I don't have "Bilbo's Last Song", but will get it someday.

All the editions I have are pre-movie. I don't think I'd like to have movie-related stuff attached to the books, since the books have absolutely nothing to do with the movies. Years ago I had the smaller, soft-cover versions of the LOTR and the Hobbit. Later I upgraded to decent hard-cover editions of everything. I also used to have a single-volume edition of the LOTR, but as I read it I realized that a one-volume edition is only good for looking nice on a bookshelf. It's way to big and clumsy to read. So I got rid of it. Besides, it wasn't a very well printed copy, but had lots of fading text. I then got a four-volume set of the LOTR and the Hobbit, and that's a much nicer way of reading them. :)

All the other Middle-earth books I have are of different editions, printed over the course of many years. None of them really match, and I don't care at all about that. They're all in fair to nearly new condition, and I think I bought all of them used.

I have two editions of The Hobbit. The regular one that came with the LOTR set, and a larger annotated version.

Someone asked one time which one book I would save if my house was on fire and I had to rush out. I would take my Bible, and my Middle-earth books. :cool: