Rating: 
Summary: Best ever read
Review: I've read and taught Shakespeare, Homer, Miltom and Dante. Tolkien contains all of the archetypical and heroic elements and weaves an incredible plot and list of characters. He may well have written The Bible. I read it when I was 18, 23. 27, and again at 52 years old.(Yes, I can still move my eyes left to right) Don't miss it. It will change your life
Rating: 
Summary: If you want a good, long read, this is one of the best.
Review: J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the masters of Fantasy, and one of the best writers of our time. Anyone who hasn't read this books should. And for anyone has read them, but a while ago, pick them up and read them again. Like I said, they are long, and for most readers it will take two or three months but the time is well worth it. You couldn't buy a better set of books, unless you buy Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time(those that are finished) and maybe some of David Eddings works
Rating:
Summary: The greatest Fantasy ever written!
Review: As I say, Tolkien was absolutely the greatest fantasist of
all time. Everyone else since has merely been trying
weakly to copy him, and failing miserably at it. See what I
mean. Read these books!
Rating:
Summary: A jolly good read!
Review: The boxed set edition may cost you a pretty penny, but it is nonetheless a delightful read.
In fact, "delightful" is, I'm afraid, a bit of an understatement. J.R.R. Tolkien's writing is superb (after all, he was a philologist). His writing is simply wonderful! It is beautiful and tragic, all at the same time. I know of no other finer work comparable to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, except perhaps C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy.
For those of you who have not yet read Tolkien's work, I envy you. You are not only in for "a jolly good read," but you will live and breathe the fantasy world of a man called J.R.R. Tolkien!
--spaceboy
Rating:
Summary: Bestest book in the Business!!!
Review: This is just the greatest book anyone has ever written! Thegreatest work of fantasy that any Author has ever written! Tolkien isa god!
Rating:
Summary: Loved Them !!!
Review: I loved these books; they were bought for me for Christmas, and I could not wait to read them { they were read within a week }; after finishing the novels, l was looking forward to seeing the movie trilogy. I also recommend reading "The Hobbit" before starting the "Lord of the Rings", as it provides background info, that can help you understand the books more; Definitely a great addition to anybody's library.
Rating:
Summary: A Master Work
Review: Conventional wisdom posits that it takes 100 years before it is safe to consider a book a "classic." It has only been about 50 years since The Lord of the Rings was published but I am confident that another is not needed before we can call this book a master work. Why do I say this? Because The Lord of the Rings deals with those perennial problems that all human beings have to deal with: the perils of ambition, the necessity of friendship, the need for courage and hope...among others. What makes this book a classic is that it transcends the genre of fantasy. Rather than being a fantasy book, it is a book about the perennial qustions of good and evil told through the medium of a fantasy story. If you have not read the Lord of the Rings, you should do so now.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Stories!!
Review: Two other books were published the same year as The Lord of the Rings; The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake. Both are excellent, and they are still read today. I can highyl recommend them. They are even in the same fantasy genre as Lord of the Rings, and both Anderson and Tolkien drew on the same nordic mythology. Why is then Lord of the Rings so outstandingly popular? Especially Gormenghast rivals LOTR in complexity and brilliance. Maybe the answer lies in the fact that Tolkien poured all of his soul in his books. These are not mere books; they *are* Tolkien. I have heard that Tolkien wrote to escape a dreary life - therefore he created the ultimate escape fantasy. I remember how hypnotised I was as a child reading them. Tolkien weaves such a rich tapestry that as in no other fantasy book have I ever felt that the author is describing a real world. The only book I can think about that comes close is Frank Herbert's Dune, but it is also obviously inspired by LOTR.
So, the combination of a will to create a fantasy world to escape to with the imagination and education to do it and a remarkable writing ability has created a literary masterpiece. I think that he created the modern fantasy genre with these books, and all role-playing games up until the mid-eighties were directly modelled on Middle-Earth.
However, I must add that I have some caveats: The moral of the books is rather primitve - static rural countryside/good, dynamic industrial society/bad. There is a total dualism; you are either with the good guys or with the bad guys (and gosh, are the bad guys BAD!). There has also been a lot of commercial exploitation of Tolkien; his family has published material that was never supposed to be published, and I fear that it is more driven by money than respect for his legacy.
Rating:
Summary: The Lord of the Rings
Review: My goodness - I am really surprised by some of the criticism of this boxed set!! I have read through all the books twice and I never even noticed a typo! Not one! (I am sure there are some typos, but I failed to see them.)
And I really like the movie photo covers! I like the connection it makes between the movies and books.
I bought this boxed set of paperbacks to be my "reading copies" of LOTR. I find I can get more "comfortable" with a paperback as opposed to a big hardback. Since they are small, they are easy to stick in my pocket/purse and take with me. I did not purchase this boxed set anticipating fancy maps and artwork! (For that, I will purchase the more expensive hardback editions.)
I think some of the reviewers had unrealistic expectations of this boxed set...
With all that said, I read these books after seeing the movies. I can understand why fans were concerned that the movies would not do the books justice. The books are so descriptive, imaginative, and full of brilliant detail. But I think Peter Jackson did an awsome job with the movies.
There is so "much" in these books, that you really must read them more than once to take it all in... I'll probably read them for the third time later this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Movie covers get worse and worse
Review: I adore the books and the movies, but every time the publisher releases a new set of paperbacks with movie cover art, their choice of covers get worse and worse. The current cover art for Fellowship of the Rings is particularly bad, since it features Frodo in Shelob's lair. They should have kept the cover art from the first release, when the first movie came out.
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