Perhaps people want to share some unlucky experiences...

Today I was at a flea market and found three Linguaphone sets! I was in a hurry, so I just quickly checked one of them: yeah, it included Lesson 30, "Wireless". And another one had all the booklets -- nice! As you may know, the Linguaphone sets are quite heavy, and carrying three required some effort.

Back home I sat down to investigate what I thought was a "lucky find". However, the one with the booklets was a different set, featuring no recording by J.R.R. Tolkien. The second one was actually a German language course! And the third, which (at least) had Lesson 30, was missing Lesson 20 (all other records were included so I guess it might have been looted).

Lesson learned: always check carefully when buying something heavy!

I just sent a message through the MythSoc list about this publication, first(?) noted by Dorwiniondil over at the LotR Plaza (so some of you may have already heard about it):

Collectors should make sure to pick up a copy of the forthcoming The Times Literary Supplement, 14 September 2012! It features an article about the artist Mary Fairburn by Paul Tankard, who quotes extensively from formerly unpublished letters by Tolkien.

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1124297.ece

Nicely put! There's something of a philosopher in you, Khamul!

Well, I had some trouble finding this related thread, so why not link to it here (where I looked first):

Trotter's uncle's find (are double possessive forms used in English???):

http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... =ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

On a side note, speaking about pre-ordering from Amazon -- does pre-ordering in theory increase the chance of getting a first print (where applicable)? I'm thinking about the case with the pocket edition of The Hobbit, where people had to order through Canadian Amazon to get a first printing.