A lot of the price of a new release book has to do with the publisher. Many of the books published by smaller and mainly academic publishing houses tend to cost more and have smaller print runs. A big publisher like HarperCollins can offer books cheaper.

I have yet to read Tolkien's Modern Reading...it's in my read soon stack though.

Ligandil wrote:

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!

I paid £27 for the hardcover of Tolkien's Library. It is currently £29.99 on Amazon UK. It was never a cheap book.

No, Tolkien's Modern Reading is not overly focussed on Catholocism though it does talk about certain aspects when related to Tolkien's reading of books. I am firmly atheist and did not find anything offputting.

Thank you, Mr. Underhill and ontherail. Indeed, I'll get TL whenever I have the chance.

Regarding Ordway's, I had a fear that it would be too much focussed on religion, so thank you for clarifying that.

I notice this from Scull & Hammond's blog https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.co ... otes-february-march-2021/

"Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway. Word on Fire, 2021. Christina and I were sent a copy of this by the publisher, and have a separate review coming up in our blog."

Looking forward to the review to decide if I am going to get a copy

Trotter wrote:

I notice this from Scull & Hammond's blog https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.co ... otes-february-march-2021/

"Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway. Word on Fire, 2021. Christina and I were sent a copy of this by the publisher, and have a separate review coming up in our blog."

Looking forward to the review to decide if I am going to get a copy

Along with (not their opinion isn't valid, but the more people that agree on something the better!) other notable experts such as Tom Shippey, Veryln Flieger and Corey Olsen, to name just a few. Though Wayne and Christina tend to do more reviews than other experts in the field.

What I'm saying is, I'm curious what the Tolkien community as a whole thinks of it.

I'm very happy to just go with Wayne and Christina's review.

Trotter wrote:

I notice this from Scull & Hammond's blog https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.co ... otes-february-march-2021/

"Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway. Word on Fire, 2021. Christina and I were sent a copy of this by the publisher, and have a separate review coming up in our blog."

Looking forward to the review to decide if I am going to get a copy

It's in my stack of books to read, but if Mr. Hammond and Ms. Scull recommend that I read a book, it's much more likely that that book will move to the top of my stack.

insurrbution wrote:

Trotter wrote:

I notice this from Scull & Hammond's blog https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.co ... otes-february-march-2021/

"Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway. Word on Fire, 2021. Christina and I were sent a copy of this by the publisher, and have a separate review coming up in our blog."

Looking forward to the review to decide if I am going to get a copy

Along with (not their opinion isn't valid, but the more people that agree on something the better!) other notable experts such as Tom Shippey, Veryln Flieger and Corey Olsen, to name just a few. Though Wayne and Christina tend to do more reviews than other experts in the field.

What I'm saying is, I'm curious what the Tolkien community as a whole thinks of it.

I don't mean the following as a criticism so please, don't take it as such but by the time you get all the reviews you want you could have read the book and given your own review of it. I think too much weight can be given to reviews.

I have read the book and enjoyed it very much. I think Holly Ordway has researched and expanded on Tolkien studies fantastically well here and in a way I have not witnessed previously, it is worthwhile reading regardless of what reviews may say because a reviewer may miss what you find useful. That is not to say I don't trust Wayne and Christina because I do, they stand at the very top of the group I trust when it comes to Tolkien studies, but they are after all just two opinions.

Dr. Ordway talks a little about robots and sci-fi in her talk posted here but the chapter itself is worth the price of entry alone imo. I hope she does not mind a little quote here.

A further glimpse of the extent to which Tolkien kept abreast of the field can be seen in a small but significant reference to the “Robot Age” in “On Fairy-stories." The word ‘robot’ would have been a relative neologism in 1939, when Tolkien prepared his lecture. ‘Robot’ derives from the Czech play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek, translated into English in 1923, and was made more familiar to science-fiction readers by Isaac Asimov, but Tolkien’s use of the word pre-dates by more than a decade the publication of Asimov’s robot stories. He probably encountered the term in American science-fiction magazines such as Astounding Science-Fiction, Amazing Stories, or Wonder Stories (the first edited by John W. Campbell, the latter two by Hugo Gernsback). All these published robot stories in the 1930s. Tolkien’s familiarity with these magazines is demonstrated in The Notion Club Papers, where he has his characters use the term ‘scientifiction’ for what we would now call ‘science fiction’: this portmanteau word was coined by Amazing Stories editor Hugo Gernsback in 1923, but did not last long. As late as 1967, Tolkien was still keeping up with the genre, as we know from his reference to a Gene Wolfe story published in Orbit 2: The Best New Science Fiction of the Year.

In short, Tolkien knew the field of science fiction very well, such that he could declare with confidence that “It’s a very good medium for the imagination to work with”—though not an easy one, for as he remarks, “it’s been much misused by lesser writers.”

That is a tiny example of her knowledge and the lengths she went to when researching. When someone goes to such lengths to show a words entry into literature they deserve attention, especially when writing about a man who loved words.

I got quite a lot from this book and importantly, added books to my read list that I previously had neglected to entertain. So it will help expand my own reading and that can only be a good thing.

On a personal level I was hoping for some links to Eliot's Waste Land because frankly I think it the absolute pinacle of literature. Alas not to be. I also agree with Ordway about Lewis not getting Eliot. I am glad the men became closer in their final years, but I digress.

Oh, of course not denying that in the least.

However, we know that David Day isn't.....reliable, and say, Tom Shippey is; without needing to read reviews. That's what I was getting at.

Great quote, onthetrail. Thanks for taking the trouble to type it out. Makes me look forward to reading this book all the more. It’s strange to think of Tolkien reading Amazing Tales or a Gene Wolf story. I’m so used to thinking of Tolkien reading nothing later than Chaucer. I suspect it’s to address those misconceptions that this book has been written.