J. R. R. Tolkien Books

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English fantasy writer, novelist, artist, scholar, linguist and professor who was most renowned around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy. Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at Universities as a distinguished academic. He was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien’s most popular fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy have both had a devoted international fan base and have been adapted into award-winning blockbuster films. If however you are a parent that is raising a reader who enjoys fantasy fiction, Tolkien’s fantasy novels and characters are best enjoyed through Tolkien’s books first and films second. Here are some of Tolkien’s books that any ardent fan must own.

The Monsters and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien A comprehensive and complete collection of Tolkien's essays, including two on Beowulf, which span three decades beginning six years before The Hobbit to five years after The Lord of the Rings—this book is just what you need to get your teenager or young adult hooked to quality fiction literature. 

The seven 'essays' by J.R.R. Tolkien assembled in this new paperback edition were with one exception delivered as general lectures on particular occasions; and while they mostly arose out of Tolkien's work in mediaeval literature, they are accessible to all. Two of them are concerned with Beowulf, including the well-known lecture whose title is taken for this book, and one with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, given in the University of Glasgow in 1953. Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on Invented Languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-Stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien's approach to the whole genre. 

After the release of The Hobbit, the classic children's story, readers clamoured for a sequel, but Tolkien was trying—and failing—to get his mythological Eä stories into print. Eventually, the two ideas came together, and became the internationally successful The Lord of the Rings. This story, told across a trilogy of books, invented modern fantasy, and inspired everything from Game of Thrones to Dungeons & Dragons. Tolkien's work has since been adapted many times, most notably Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth cycle of films. Fans across the globe are now looking forward to the upcoming series The Rings of Power with the books about where it all began. For those inclined to re-read the complete works before the new releases, we’ve got a complete box set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings available at a great price.

Whilst The Lord of the Rings is set at the end of the Third Age, The Rings of Power will tell the story of the Second Age. It’s adapted from the references sprinkled throughout The Lord of the Rings, and its extensive appendices. You can read a more complete account of the history of Middle-Earth in J.R.R Tolkien’s middle-earth books published after Tolkien’s death such as The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Hurin and The Fall of Gondolin. Or you can purchase this curated box set with all four titles—Tales of Middle-earth by J.R.R. Tolkien 5 Books Collection Set.