Ran over to pick up my copy during the morning coffee run and I can't wait to get it home and unwrapped tonight; the colours on the box are absolutely gorgeous in person, and I trust that the books themselves will be equally so.

The second box arrived today.
Very nice box, the colour's as has been noted are very nice. The height difference to the first is not as pronounced as it looked in Trotter's photograph and I doubt that I will notice it on the shelf.

It is lovely to see John Howe's illustrations finally being used for a hardcover series, which I've been excited about since I was a teenager. Looking forward to rereading these and adding the references to the Guide to Tolkien's Letters as I do.

I received the second boxset today, shipped to the U.S. from Awesome Books. Very pleased to have no damage to the box by shipping as happened with the first set. I was waiting to see how this box arrived, as if it had shipping damage I was probably not going to order from Awesome Books again. As it is, I think I am going to stick with them to pre-order the third boxset, even risking some minor damage as happened with the first set, since it's $40+ cheaper on Awesome Books than Blackwell's or Amazon.

I don't know if this matters to anyone save me, as it is also too early to really tell, but I did reach out to the publishers about the possibility of a paperback set of these editions (to match the other paperback illustrated releases) and they said it has been discussed but nothing is firm yet. And at best it wouldn't be until next year until such a thing was decided.

I know this is how it typically goes with hardback to paperback releases, but for anyone wondering if a decision had been made yet so one has something to look forward to (like I do with such things) we have to wait a bit longer.

The paperback editions are already being reissued with new cover art. Roughly 90% of existing Tolkien paperbacks are coming out in the new design style.

There are some titles that don’t seem to be coming out in the new style: Tree and Leaf, Road to Middle-earth, Finn and Hengest and The Monsters and the Critics come to mind.

toothsayer wrote:

I don't know if this matters to anyone save me, as it is also too early to really tell, but I did reach out to the publishers about the possibility of a paperback set of these editions (to match the other paperback illustrated releases) and they said it has been discussed but nothing is firm yet. And at best it wouldn't be until next year until such a thing was decided.

I know this is how it typically goes with hardback to paperback releases, but for anyone wondering if a decision had been made yet so one has something to look forward to (like I do with such things) we have to wait a bit longer.

Technically, HarperCollins have already released the new HoMe hardbacks as paperbacks, the previous two designs were the same covers as the new hardbacks. If the new 'signature' range of paperbacks are popular, then I see no reason for them to change the paperback HoMe covers for a number of years.