A madness took me, but it has passed

May 8, 2018 7:16 PM

mytolkienbooks.com is a classic single-serving web 2.x personal site, serving simply as a catalog of one Tolkienist bibliophile's collection. I came across it cross-searching a poorly-sourced Facebook reference to the 1977 Rankin-Bass book edition of The Hobbit.
posted by mwhybark (14 comments total)

(note is due to the subsection devoted to fonts)
posted by mwhybark at 7:18 PM on May 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Wow I wonder if my 1977 Hobbit is still in my parents' basement..... I think it got flood damaged and discarded, but it may be there still.
posted by thelonius at 7:45 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

My school library had that book.

The local public library had the LP set (which is basically the entire audio track of the film put onto vinyl). Which I had memorized before I was 10 years old because I taped it and listened to it obsessively.

"Your story has the ring of truth. Yes it rings true." -Gandalf to Bilbo after his recount of his encounter with Gollum.
posted by hippybear at 8:05 PM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

I still have my Hobbit from growing up - the one with Tolkien's picture on the back, pointing out that unlike SOME editions, this one is authorized.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:09 PM on May 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Andrew Liptak on unauthorized Tolkien editions: Kirkus, on his blog, and on DAW and Ace doubles at Kirkus.

Delightful, an entire topic in this subculture I have been previously unaware of.
posted by mwhybark at 8:23 PM on May 8, 2018

This is neat, for sure, but it is not really a single-serving site. Nor is it web 2.x. It is totes Web 1.0. But maybe I am misreading and you were using those terms funnily. I don’t know how to end this comment without coming across as an asshole or a dummy.
posted by ericost at 8:30 PM on May 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

The internet is a wondrous nostalgia mine. Here's the version of the Lord of the Rings that I had. I wonder if that one has the misprint that repeated a dozen pages in the lead-up to Shelob's lair.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:31 PM on May 8, 2018

That's the same one I have, qxntpqbbbqxl! It's a prized possession. We also have this edition of The Hobbit.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:37 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I wonder if that one has the misprint that repeated a dozen pages in the lead-up to Shelob's lair.

This is so Italo Calvino it hurts.
posted by hippybear at 8:38 PM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

What a delight! Wasn't there a chatty AskMe or MetaTalk post about the best websites made by folks for their singular obsessions? I can't find it now (drat!).
posted by steef at 6:25 AM on May 9, 2018

My mom read the Rankin-Bass Hobbit to us as kids (my brothers and I). I was hooked.

qxntpqbbbqxl: "Here's the version of the Lord of the Rings that I had."

Same version in our house. Plus the matching green slipcover edition of The Hobbit.

I read both books to my son, starting when he was 7. When at age 8 he wanted to read the books himself, I told him he can't have my copies - but I did find nice versions for him to keep as his very own. He was thrilled.
posted by caution live frogs at 8:49 AM on May 9, 2018

steef: "What a delight! Wasn't there a chatty AskMe or MetaTalk post about the best websites made by folks for their singular obsessions? I can't find it now (drat!)."

You're looking for "The Old Man and the C Drive"
posted by caution live frogs at 8:51 AM on May 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Longbottom Leaf tobacco has been proven to be hobbit farming.
posted by w0mbat at 12:19 PM on May 9, 2018

I had never seen the unauthorized Ace edition of LotR. I was disappointed he doesn’t have the original Ballantine edition I cut my teeth on in the late 60s. I read it so many times in junior high I think I wore out two full copies.

Now I read my Tolkien electronically, but still have The Hobbit and LotR in hardback because some books you just have to keep around in paper.
posted by lhauser at 7:01 PM on May 9, 2018