Dr Holly Ordway - Tolkien's Modern Reading

But can we see what's inside the trunk?

I found this talk to be interesting, has anyone read the book yet?

Currently reading it but it is taking me a while to really get going with it because of other factors. But it is a really well written book so far.

It was an interesting talk yes. Looking forward to getting the book now.

Great interview. I have the book and am yet to read it. I also have “Tolkien’s Library”, which is gently criticised during the interview. But it too is a fascinating book - nicely produced and interesting to see what Tolkien had on his shelves. Even if there is no evidence that he read all the books in his library it still gives us some insight of the books Tolkien felt were worth keeping, if only for professional purposes rather than enjoyment.

Quicksilver wrote:

Great interview. I have the book and am yet to read it. I also have “Tolkien’s Library”, which is gently criticised during the interview. But it too is a fascinating book - nicely produced and interesting to see what Tolkien had on his shelves. Even if there is no evidence that he read all the books in his library it still gives us some insight of the books Tolkien felt were worth keeping, if only for professional purposes rather than enjoyment.

Her book is really well researched and worth reading. I think her criticism of Cilli is fair in the strictest sense but his book offers an assumption that if it was good enough to be on his shelves or he made the effort to find it and check it out of a library then he probably read it or portions of it. I have gained much from it and still do. I think his job was to list them all, as much as possible and then it is down to us to find the rest.

Tolkien's Modern Reading is quite different and I think she has approached it well. Her points in the interview about certain Sci-fi words are spot on I feel and demonstrate how far she has gone to bring this part of Tolkien’s reading to life.

I think the two books compliment each other well and the parallels between them are enough to make them aids to each other. That's my early take after reading her book once. I will go through it again with a keener eye for the smaller details at a later date.

I still await to see what some Tolkien experts have to say about this book (such as Corey Olsen, Verlyn Flieger, Hammond & Scull, Tom Shippey, etc...) as it's gotten a lot of marketing and publicity. I hope that the attention is justified.

For Tolkien’s Library, does someone know why is it so expensive ($50 hardcover)?

And for Tolkien's Modern Reading, I read that the publisher is a Catholic organization. Does this have a lot of catholic material/focus?

Thank you!