I love Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (the books I mean....I'm not talking about Pete Jackson's films here). To some extent I think even The Hobbit was equally good too albeit much simpler than LOTR. So far I've read the LOTR books twice and The Hobbit thrice. Naturally what comes next is the burning desire to explore Tolkien's other books.
I've heard from a colleague that the Silmarillion book is worth the read. It's somewhat similar to what we've come across in LOTR and The Hobbit but it's different enough.
Unfinished Tales of Númeanor & Middle Earth however, promises to be an exciting collection of adventures of people (and orcses) preceding both The Hobbit ans LOTR.
Like a true blue geek, I made some research on both books. This is because I do not think I can fathom 2 Tolkien books back-to-back. You see, JRR Tolkien wrote in a very high level of sophisticated English. You must have extremely good patience to finish off any one of his books. Anyone who's read Tolkien's work will know what I mean.
Eventually I went for Unfinished Tales since I wanted to know more about the backstory of the familiar faces in LOTR.
I can't really say that it was 'light' reading' when it certainly wasn't. But if you're patient enough, you'll find that 'Tales is worth the time you invested reading it. Loved the Gandalf backstory!
Now I doubt that Peter Jackson is gonna get the rights to do a film based on this book (or even Silmarillion) since he had a fallout with JRR's son Christopher. What a bummer.
Comments