I must say, playing The One Ring has me more "Tolkienized" that I have been in years. I just re-read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and LoTR, and now I want to go through them yet again. They are just so rich. Every time I read them, I find more things going on, which I hadn't see before.

Complete aside, but just wanted to declare my undying love for Middle-Earth and all things related thereto.

Here, enjoy some lembas and enjoy your warm fuzzies.

I know what you mean. I have loved all thing Middle Earth for years, but this has gotten me really excited about running a Middle Earth game for the first time in a very long time. I have begun going back through all the books on CD back and forth to work, for about the tenth time

The timing of TOR's release was perfect for me. Inspired by rereading of THE SILMARILLION, I was already nugging through a LOTR mod of a mod (13th century Germany) of a mod (AGoT) of 3E. TOR should provide a much better overall experience than what I intended and motivated me to finish reading HoME. I never tire of reading Tolkien, to my wife's annoyance since various books by the professor or his son are always strewn about the house!

I, too, want to slug it through HoME. I've read bits and pieces, but never gone straight through.

Fortunately, my husband also enjoys Tolkien, so he tolerates the books well. He's not into the background as much as I am, though. He just enjoys the stories as literature. When he gifted me with a Kindle, though, he had already "pre-loaded" it with a small Tolkien library. I suspect that was a hint regarding the proliferation of books around the house

All HoME books are not created equal. Some are quite fun to read when I have a free minute. Others, I suspect, shall but await the random whim to check a quote or source. Some of them have already waited years in that capacity!

Since I became a TOR fan, my Tolkien library has been increasing and books are starting to clutter up my house too!

A really great book (that I only have on my Kindle and is not cluttering the house) is A Tolkien English Glossary: A Guide to Old, Uncommon, and Archaic Words Used in The Hobbit And The Lord of the Rings by Oliver Loo. Loremasters would sound more like the Professor if they would just use some of the great vocabulary words he used. I'm positively flummoxed by those who won't try it. Confusticate and bebother these Loremasters!

Confusticated... I believe that makes a total count of 3 instances where the word has been used in my lifetime.

Just got Loo's book via Kindle. Haven't looked at it yet, though. For $2.99, though, who can go wrong?

A recent Kindle addition of my own is S.A. Swaffington, "Anglo-Saxon Trolls, Wights, Faeries, orcs & other Supernatural Creatures". Short, inexpensive, and easy reading. Interestingly "orc" was at one time used as a derogatory word for "foreigner".