Unconditional Shelf-Love

Very handsome shelves there! Thanks for sharing with us.

I feel it’s time for an update, since my shelf has been filling up nicely. As a matter of fact one might argue that it is full now. None of my new acquisitions are extremely rare or valuable (I got most of these at around 5-10 € per book from small shops and private sellers) but I had a lot of fun chasing them down. I mostly went for very readable and/or nice looking editions that would match what was already there.

Here’s what’s new from top to bottom (I can add pictures of individual books if there is any interest):

WM standard hardbacks
(to kind of match the annotated Hobbit)
- LotR 20th
- Silmarillion 25th
—> The LotR is an excellent reader, very nice paper. The Silmarillion is not.

HM Hobbit & LotR trade paperback boxed set
(to match the HM HoLotR box)
—> These are great readers, so I got two sets.

Ballantine Books 1988 UT
(to match the 1993 Hobbit & LotR set)

HC illustrated trade paperbacks
- Hobbit 9th
- FotR 6th
- TT 5th
- RotK 6th
- Silmarillion 1st

HC trade paperbacks colored bottoms
(to kind of match the middle-earth-related ones)
- Beowulf 13th
- Kullervo 7th

GAU second edition clothbound LotR
(to match the respective Hobbit & Silmarillion)
- FotR 7th
- TT 7th
- RotK 7th
Second set (no cloth, hence not on this shelf)
- FotR 12th
- TT 12th
- RotK 12th

HC large format clothbound illustrated 90s/00s
(to match the Foster Guide that has no HM-version)
- LotR Centenary 11th
- Hobbit 5th
- FotR 1st
- TT 1st
- RotK 1st
- Silmarillion 2nd
- Silmarillion (smaller version) 1st

HC TftPR matte illustrated 1st

HMCO Morgoth’s Ring 1st
(my favorite HoME volume & a lovely clothbound)

HMH Complete HoME Vol. III 1st
(good reader)

HC Hammond & Skull C&G Boxset 5th

GAU Carpenter Bio 1st
(was supposed to match the above mentioned GAUs but didn’t)

BCA LotR Centenary 1st
(I have HM, HC, and BCA now. I think that in the current market the Centenaries are the best value for money if you want AL illustrations. Great binding, basically indestructible.)

GAU Complete Foster Guide 1st
(was supposed to match the above mentioned GAUs but didn’t)

HM quarter cloth standard hardbacks
- LotR 1st (perfect reader, I got three of these)
- UT 4th
- Silmarillion 8th
- Hobbit 1st (size not matching, not on this shelf)

US first editions (not on this shelf)
- HM Silmarillion 3rd
- HM UT 1st

HC faux leather movie tie-in LotR Aussie 1st
(not on this shelf)

HC trade and mass paperback 7-volume-sets
(just for reading, not on display)

German editions

Maldon/Beorhtnoth 1st
—> Contains the English version side by side with a translation plus the notes in German.

Carpenter Bio
—> German 1st/1st

Author illustrated Silmarillion 2nd
—> This is imo a lot nicer than both the standard and deluxe UK/US-versions: full cloth, larger format, more muted colors.

Annotated Hobbit 3rd
—> Strangely, this German version is called „The Big Hobbit Book”, which kept me from realizing it’s the translation of AH for a long time.

The space optimization is crazy !

Another three months have passed and I had to push my space optimization (Thanks, Bergelmir!) to the next level. Now my poor shelf really seems to have reached maximum capacity.

I am waiting for a couple more books (my HMH Complete HoME III is standing in for next year’s Deluxe Letters, the standard WM LotR for the „special collector’s” Hobbit & Silmarillion), and then I think I should call it a day for the sake of poor old Billy the shelf-pony.

Thanks for an exciting 2025 at TCG. Happy Holidays everyone!

Here’s what’s new since my last update:

HC Millennium 7-volume-hardcover-set 1st

Ballantine 1973 Hobbit & LotR boxed set (48,47,44,43)

HC Author-Illustrated Deluxes
- Hobbit 1st
- LotR 5th
- Silmarillion 3rd

HC Deluxe Slipcased (Alan Lee) Hobbit 1st

HC Deluxes (2000’s)
- Beren and Luthien 7th
- Fall of Gondolin 5th
- Nature of ME 3rd

HC Bovadium Fragments 1st

HM LotR 2nd Edition 9th/8th/8th

HM Silmarillion 1st (replacing a 3rd)

HM Letters 1st

HM War of the Jewels 2nd

HM Peoples of ME 3rd

BCA Silmarillion 1994

HM HotH matte illustrated 4th

HC Author-Illustrated Standards
- Hobbit 3rd
- Silmarillion 1st

HC black spine/center image Tree & Leaf 15th

QPC LotR 1995 1st (current reader, not on the shelf)

GERMAN editions
- 2012 leather-bound Hobbit 1st
- Letters from Father Christmas 1st
- 1987 Silmarillion 1st

Thank you for letting us join you on your Tolkien collection journey.

What do you plan to get next?

EmilK wrote:

What do you plan to get next?

I promised my wife, my bank account, and my poor bending shelf that I would stop buying books for a while. Yet they might all of them be deceived when another shelf is made ...

I have been eyeing the large print editions that you just got for a while now, for example.

Also, the Easton Press Tolkien's Classics Set has been giving me a very hard time for the better part of 2025. I just could not seem to make a decision there.

For now, I'm fine. But the Tolkien road goes ever on and on.

I'd be super cautious with having those shelves so close together. They will likely slowly bend under the weight, crushing the books in the middle of the shelf below. There is also a real risk of damaging books putting them onto the shelf (which is why I maintain a 5cm gap at the top of all all shelves -- though I have squeezed an extra shelf onto each of my bookcases).

The late Stu wrote:

I'd be super cautious with having those shelves so close together. They will likely slowly bend under the weight, crushing the books in the middle of the shelf below. There is also a real risk of damaging books putting them onto the shelf (which is why I maintain a 5cm gap at the top of all all shelves -- though I have squeezed an extra shelf onto each of my bookcases).

Thanks for keeping an eye on your fellow collectors' shelf constructions. Book safety is paramount and I too am constantly concerned with how my lack of shelf space might afflict those books.

I actually built little boxes out of wood and/or heavy cardboard that are sitting behind the books to support the shelves and at the same time keep the books from sliding in any further.

The only place where the above shelf actually touches what's below is the 2000's Deluxes and that is on purpose to make these terribly mismatched slipcases at least appear to all be the same height (which none of them are). There is no pressure on the books, though. I can still pull them out easily.

ESS wrote:

The late Stu wrote:

I'd be super cautious with having those shelves so close together. They will likely slowly bend under the weight, crushing the books in the middle of the shelf below. There is also a real risk of damaging books putting them onto the shelf (which is why I maintain a 5cm gap at the top of all all shelves -- though I have squeezed an extra shelf onto each of my bookcases).

Thanks for keeping an eye on your fellow collectors' shelf constructions. Book safety is paramount and I too am constantly concerned with how my lack of shelf space might afflict those books.

I actually built little boxes out of wood and/or heavy cardboard that are sitting behind the books to support the shelves and at the same time keep the books from sliding in any further.

The only place where the above shelf actually touches what's below is the 2000's Deluxes and that is on purpose to make these terribly mismatched slipcases at least appear to all be the same height (which none of them are). There is no pressure on the books, though. I can still pull them out easily.

Sounds like you have it well in hand! Lack of space is a curse which I am all too familiar with. I really need an extra bookcase, but I only have one place I could put it in my office where it would never get any sunlight, and that screws up my desk positioning, so I have given up on the idea and just have to accept a percentage of my books packed away in boxes at any given point in time. It is a frustration - though I suppose it probably saves me money as it means I have to be specific on what I collect!