J.R.R. Tolkien Books: What Reading Order Is Best?
Can you name the 2nd best selling novel of all time?
The Lord of the Rings trilogy [Amazon].
What about the 3rd best selling book of all time?
And Tolkien wrote these in the 1930’s and 1950’s. What a legend.
I propose the following reading order for J.R.R. Tolkien’s books.
Don’t think that watching the movie is enough. The movie was based on the book, not the other way around. It’s worth it, I promise!
“Stop there” is not the name of a book, I actually mean stop there. Stop reading. Tolkien’s other works are either completely nuts or just enormous poems, or plays. For example Simarlillion reaches back thousands of years to introduce the ancestral line of the elves. It doesn’t even have a story!
Tolkien also wrote a huge number of short stories, poems, play’s and non-fiction work.
Lot’s of them have been published by his son Christopher Tolkien long after Tolkien’s death.
So if you just love elves and that stuff, go for it by all means.
Am I being too harsh? Are you a huge fan? Have you just begun reading the books? Which order is best?