What to collect?
When you look at the list of books Tolkien has written it seems very impossible to start collecting Tolkien books. Still i know
a lot of persons who own very nice collections of Tolkien work and/or
collectables and strangely enough almost all of these collections are
very different.
In every case though, the growth of the collection goes through different
phases. Most of the most fanatic Tolkien collectors start out buying all
books they read from Tolkien (the
hobbit, the lord
of the rings, the
silmarillion, etc.), even not knowing a lot about the author or without
any further knowledge about other works from Tolkien.
In itself this is already a very fine collection, all Middle Earth related
books, especially if also the complete history
of Middle Earth is standing on your bookshelves. But when you reach
this point, or even earlier, you really start wandering about Tolkien,
this time as a person. It really is interesting to find out more about
the man who created all of these fantastic books. In my eyes this is a
logic step. Then your library grows again: Tolkien's biography, or other
Middle Earth or Tolkien books (good or bad) may be bought and eagerly
read.
From then on there are many roads to follow... some like the languages
and make a book collection concentrated on this matter, other are more
interested in the inklings and start collecting c.s.lewis, etc.
Others then again start collecting every single edition of one certain
book, like the hobbit,
they can lay there hands on. Some like to collect Tolkienbooks in all
different knid of translations, some get into critical works on Tolkien
(and there is 'really' so many books out there who have something to say
on Tolkien), some go even further and really buy anything Tolkien has
ever written (and i guess i am one of those)... and this might really
take a life time of collecting. Good luck to you all!!
