History of Middle-earth paperbacks

I have just had a look at The Peoples of Middle-Earth.

The text between the hardback and paperback is the same and uses the same page numbers (so the one volume hardback or paperback Index works with both sets of books).

Most of the hardbacks do include some colour plates which are not in the paperbacks. This appears to be the only omission from the paperbacks.

Thanks for that!

I'm not a collector; I'm only trying to put together a set for reading purposes, having never read them before. While I'm drawn more to the aesthetics of the paperback editions, it helps to know that they would be missing some of the color plates from the hardbacks.

Maybe this is how one becomes a collector: one version has this, another version has that, and you end up wanting them all.

You sound like you are on the path to becoming a collector

You might end up with something like these

http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/collecting/collectors/collectors.htm

Amazing bookshelf that trotter guy has! If I'm not mistaken I even spotted a LOTR first edition set among a lot of other goodies. You should make a page with detailed pictures of your most prized items with a little backstory; I would be interested to read it.

Don't encourage him. "I've got an Uncle, who was in this shop, who saw a Tolkien book, and it was like, signed... blah blah..." --yeh yeh, we don't want to know! (--unless you're going to sell it to me...)

BH