Trotter wrote:
Just trying out the Audio CD, disappointed Roast Mutton fades out after 1:12 seconds, on the Kindle Hobbit, it was 16 minutes 28 seconds long. The other tracks are all the correct length.

I'm not too savvy with eBooks, but I have the epub file for the enhanced Hobbit eBook and I've borrowed my cousin's Nook. The text of the file works fine but it won't play any audio. Can anyone help me out with this? I'd very much like to hear the full Roast Mutton track somehow.

Berelach wrote:
I'm not too savvy with eBooks, but I have the epub file for the enhanced Hobbit eBook and I've borrowed my cousin's Nook. The text of the file works fine but it won't play any audio. Can anyone help me out with this? I'd very much like to hear the full Roast Mutton track somehow.

Nevermind, just purchased it on iTunes, it's fantastic! How has this gone for so long without being released? Or did I miss something? Is there more of like stuff out there (more unreleased audio I mean)? Tolkien's purse's "Ere, 'oo are you?'" is priceless! Love it!

Here at Dymocks in Sydney, I today saw 3 paperback 1st editions of Beren and Luthien.

What’s the deal with these? I’m sorry I didn’t entirely follow the discussion but thought I’d let people know.

I recently finished a quick read-through of the new John Howe art volume, A Middle-earth Traveller. The art is lovely of course, but I was taken aback at how poorly written and edited the text is. There are typos/mistakes all over and many instances of borderline incomprehensible writing. Someone really dropped the ball.

There's a new Alan Lee Hobbit Sketchbook in the pipeline to accompany his LotR Sketchbook of several years ago. Hopefully it won't be edited by the same person...

Karl wrote:
I recently finished a quick read-through of the new John Howe art volume, A Middle-earth Traveller. The art is lovely of course, but I was taken aback at how poorly written and edited the text is. There are typos/mistakes all over and many instances of borderline incomprehensible writing. Someone really dropped the ball.

There's a new Alan Lee Hobbit Sketchbook in the pipeline to accompany his LotR Sketchbook of several years ago. Hopefully it won't be edited by the same person...

Yep, when you can see typesetting problems on the pages they put on Amazon, that is an issue (missing space after a full stop on page 7 ). The paragraph at the bottom right of page 15 starts off OK, before descending into grammatical madness. Those are the only two paragraphs I looked at. Someone needs taking out and shooting.

I'm surprised at HarperCollins doing quite such a bad job. They often have quality and design issues, but not on this scale.

I took a closer look at the paragraph on p. 15 you mention Stu:



Other than suffering from an overabundance of commas, it all makes sense to me. It does have a lot of asides that are really, really not needed, I agree.

"Dwarves and Elves might pass through, and Men, mostly from Bree, beyond the Brandywine to the east, but while Sauron gathered his strength and rumours of war floated on the wind, the Shire dreamt on."

Urulöké wrote:
I took a closer look at the paragraph on p. 15 you mention Stu:



Other than suffering from an overabundance of commas, it all makes sense to me. It does have a lot of asides that are really, really not needed, I agree.

"Dwarves and Elves might pass through, and Men, mostly from Bree, beyond the Brandywine to the east, but while Sauron gathered his strength and rumours of war floated on the wind, the Shire dreamt on."

I can't parse that sentence that you quoted without considering it to be completely nonsensical. There should be a full stop after "east", and the next sentence should start with "While". The problem stems from the decision to add ", and Men", when it should have simply been written as: "Dwarves, Elves and Men might pass through, ...".

It is just horrible writing. I don't know if it is trying to be Faux Tolkien?

That is absurd... I love it.

I found the John Howe book very poor overall, especially when judged by its write up.

A Middle-earth Traveller presents a walking tour of Tolkien's Middle-earth, visiting not only places central to his stories, but also those just over the hill or beyond the horizon.

On that quote alone it falls short of its aims and trying to make it a mix of his work on the movies made the effort messy.

Sketches that have an `on-the-spot' feel to them are interwoven with the artist's observations gleaned from Tolkien's books as he paints pictures with his words as well as his pencil.

I missed the `on-the-spot' for all the art that looked like a behind the sketches of Peter Jackson's movies.

I thought it was a poor effort at a 'walking tour'.

I have not bought this book, and based on feedback am not going to, but has anyone complained to HC about it?