I'd love to see another attempt at the dustjacket, now we have a better high resolution source with fewer compression artifacts to go from. The last jacket was OK, given the way events played out, but it was always a bit compromised.

At a minimum, this would be a great source for the flaps, even if the rest was too much hassle to re-restore.

I'd do it myself, but not sure I have the energy to do it again (though I'm a sucker for punishment, so....).

I guess the "CD of previously unreleased archive recordings featuring J.R.R. Tolkien reading from his book" (from the original description) was never really a thing.

Berelach wrote:
I guess the "CD of previously unreleased archive recordings featuring J.R.R. Tolkien reading from his book" (from the original description) was never really a thing.

I have discussed the CD with HC, and what is on it. I originally assumed that it was the same material that has already been published, in particular on the Kindle enhanced Hobbit, and I believe that material will be on the audio CD.

They also discussed that they had additional audio that had not so far been published, which I hope will be on this CD.

It would really be awesome if they are finally able to release that new recorded material!

Trotter wrote:

I have discussed the CD with HC, and what is on it. I originally assumed that it was the same material that has already been published, in particular on the Kindle enhanced Hobbit, and I believe that material will be on the audio CD.

They also discussed that they had additional audio that had not so far been published, which I hope will be on this CD.

Thanks Trotter, that's good to hear!

That box is kind of a mess. The random slapping on of the dusjacket image looks really out-of-place and ill-fitting. Hopefully a little more thought will go into the real thing. Toning down the lurid green would be nice also, IMHO, as it was a bit over the top on the slipcase and the topstain.

I'm most interested as to whether they will fix the colouring of the boards and whether the blank page will move to the correct place, tbh.

Double bonus would be to use a better colour for the topstain, improve the paper quality and make the book closer to the thickness of the original. If they did that, I'd be really happy (and the aesthetics of the box would not bother me in the least)

FWIW, I took the perspective off the box to get a better idea of it. I'm not a fan, but I guess I'm also not a publisher, so...

To my mind, just shrinking the DJ on the front of the box makes it look miles better.

I agree, that does look a lot better.

Someone else asked, so I checked with HC - the Hobbit book in the new gift set will not come with a slipcase. So if you want the slipcase, the previous facsimile edition is the way to go.

I'm told the new gift set box will have some interesting design features, so I'm looking forward to learning more there.