Someone I respect, and who has proven very knowledgeable on more occasions than I can count, pointed out progress does not have to be of only a certain kind-for example, straightforward. In your case, you have been making progress this whole time, for your work continues to flesh out and develop your writing whether that writing goes in the book or only affects its style or subtlety.
Indeed, it's good to have such people in our spheres. We need to be sure we listen..!
And indeed, this breezing and browsing of many
books, and deeper reading of others, has been worthwile in several ways, some entirely unexpected.
Among them are helping me refine the framing of the whole work, and showing me what I want to avoid as I write it.
The other good news is I'm all the more convinced no one has approached the subject in the same way I intend to, and it may prove useful to a few people. (Or be a great doorstop, vieing for space in that market with our
@david_wendelken's work.)
I do not rue the time being spent. In fact, I rather consider it essential on more levels now than I did at the beginning of the projecvt, having started the reading part with a rather narrow purpose in mind, the purpose now expanded dramatically.
(Plus, I'll have a whole bunch more stuff I can citwe in my work - both positively and perhaps on occassion negatively - which in a 'research and presentation' type work such as this will be, is quite useful as well.)
The really stellar good news: I don't need any more books by others. (In fact, I'm not sure there are any more out there I don't already have. But I'm making a determination if there are, they aren't necessary additions. I'll let the
Tolkien Fandom shred me if I fail to cite someone of importance who has written some thing of importance, which I'm certain the fandom will be prompt to do. Tolkien himself will be my primary source however. The rest, if cited, will just be for perspective.)