319/365 - Good Reading

Continuing with my Tolkien read-a-thon, I recently reached The Lord of the Rings.  My very first copy of the book was given to me as a Christmas gift right around the time the first movie came out.  I had expressed some interest in it, notably that I wanted to read the book before seeing the adaptation, and someone in my family decided to oblige.  That version was a paperback box set and the covers of the volumes were  plastered with images from the movies.  All well and good, for the time.

As time went on those volumes took a lot of wear and tear.  I was in high school, and got in the habit of keeping whatever I was reading in a compartment of my backpack so that I could pull it out whenever I had some free time, and shove it back in when I had to get to my next class. (looking back, that may explain a thing or two about my social life...)

So anyway, ten years on they're looking pretty sad.  My distaste with the films has also grown considerably, so I wasn't looking forward to being reminded of those visuals for the next several weeks while reading one of my favorite books.

Which is why I finally decided to buy myself a brand new copy, pictured above.  A hardcover set, illustrated by Alan Lee, that I had been eyeing for some time in the book store.  My Tolkien shelf just got a little bit classier.

Shiny.  ^_^

-Krawler