Amon Rudh
Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2022
- Messages
- 182
I had resigned myself to buying the three volume History of Middle-earth (HOME) books despite them apparently being quite cumbersome and on extremely thin paper and thus quite a trial to read. The original 13 volume series is other than a few volumes well out of my comfortable price range.
However I was recently made aware of the availability of the volumes new and as print on demand (POD) volumes. On the strength of comments by others and the first volume The Book of Lost Tales 1(BOLT), which I bought in used but unread condition I was confident enough to buy the other 11 (see below) and with an introductory offer from Harper Collins of 30%, bought them at £28 each delivered. I am awaiting their delivery but they have been shipped.
I bought a very good/fine original volume 6 on ebay for £25 as I wanted to compare them. I have finally received my original copy of The Return of the Shadow (ROS) and would comment as follows.
ROS is case bound and opens flat when read. It's definitely a better binding than the POD version of BOLT which is perfect bound.
The paper is rougher and cream / white coloured in ROS and is whiter and seems better quality in BOLT. Others have commented that some of the later HOME books had paper / printing quality issues.
Other than this they are both perfectly good books and I have no issues with either.
For less money than one or two volumes of the more expensive original volumes I am getting brand new books and certainly recommend considering the POD books at this early stage.
I'll report again once the others arrive with photos.
Hope this helps the deliberations of others.
However I was recently made aware of the availability of the volumes new and as print on demand (POD) volumes. On the strength of comments by others and the first volume The Book of Lost Tales 1(BOLT), which I bought in used but unread condition I was confident enough to buy the other 11 (see below) and with an introductory offer from Harper Collins of 30%, bought them at £28 each delivered. I am awaiting their delivery but they have been shipped.
I bought a very good/fine original volume 6 on ebay for £25 as I wanted to compare them. I have finally received my original copy of The Return of the Shadow (ROS) and would comment as follows.
ROS is case bound and opens flat when read. It's definitely a better binding than the POD version of BOLT which is perfect bound.
The paper is rougher and cream / white coloured in ROS and is whiter and seems better quality in BOLT. Others have commented that some of the later HOME books had paper / printing quality issues.
Other than this they are both perfectly good books and I have no issues with either.
For less money than one or two volumes of the more expensive original volumes I am getting brand new books and certainly recommend considering the POD books at this early stage.
I'll report again once the others arrive with photos.
Hope this helps the deliberations of others.
