Several years back I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  I recently discovered (when going through some old boxes I hadn't unpacked after moving house) that I've got a few additional books which I've never read, mainly The Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales Pt. 1 + 2.  Is there any order to these? Which should I read first? Or doesn't it matter?
34165
I've already read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which I assume would be the best start in any case. I also got about halfway through The Silmarillion several years ago and am quite familiar with the legendarium as a whole, but for the sake of argument let's assume I'm starting from scratch.  What is the best order for a budding scholar of Middle-earth to read Tolkien's books? Or does it even matter once you've covered the core novels? Chronological order clearly isn't the most logical approach here, and even publication date isn't necessarily best.   The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings The Silmarillion The Children of Hurin The History of Middle-earth Unfinished Tales The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Anything else   Note: After asking this question I found  on Reddit. It covers even more material and in more detail than my original question or any answers here.
66111
Please bear with me as I've never read any of the LOTR books or the Hobbit, only seen the movies so far...  But when the sunlight fades and the dwarves think they've lost their only chance to enter Erebor using the secret passage and the key, they turn around to head home. Why is it that the dwarves would be unable to enter Erebor the way they did years ago, using regular doors to get inside? I'm assuming that's how they entered Erebor years ago?
103040
During my recent re-reading of The Two Towers I was struck again by a question that has bothered me since I was a youngling: What on earth is up with the Entwives?  Treebeard says they went away in the distant past and just... got lost?  Did Tolkien ever make mention of them again, or is this one of those unsolved mysteries of Middle Earth?
80907
After watching the movies, I was left wondering: where do the Dwarves come from? Do they all originate from the same place, or do they have different "countries"? Also, are the dwarves we meet all related to each other?
112279
In Peter Jackson's film The Fellowship of the Ring, when the Council of Elrond takes place it shows a total of 22 members:    We all know the names of the ones who were part of the Fellowship, but I want to know who are the rest of the people in the council. Who are the elves that came with Legolas? The men next to the dwarves? The three old men sitting next to Boromir? Or the two elves next to Aragorn?  Starting from left to right:   Frodo Gandalf Elf Elf Legolas Elf Old Man Old Man Dwalin Gloin Gimli Nori Old Man Boromir Old Man Old Man Elf Elf Aragorn Elladan Elrond Elrohir
35770
I love my sci-fi books, but have never read any of the Star Wars novels. Having looked around there seem to be countless different plots, characters, alternative universes... so I have never picked one up!  My question is, what is a good series of Star Wars stories to start on for someone who has only seen the films, but is interested in reading more about the Star Wars universe?  Sorry I realize this is of course subjective, but I imagine an answer would point me in the direction of a few particular books or series that were most in-line with the main Star Wars plot (i.e. the films), and were considered generally good stories unto themselves.  I am particularly interested in the 'Knights of the Old Republic', having heard some friends ranting about the game. Is it necessary to play the game? Or is it based on a book (or series of books)?
98248
is about 2000-2010, but I want to start from the very beginning.  I know that  is the first one, but there are so many after them.  In what order should I start reading them?
107910
I'm new to D&amp;D and RPGs in general, but have wanted to play for a long time. Jumping into the new edition, If I purchase the starter set I'm trying to figure out where we would go after we finish.  Should I just create a campaign without the help of the core books (that release in August, September and November)? Or is there material to adapt I can adapt first (on the internet or from other editions that are adaptable), instead of creating it all from the ground up?
115746
My boyfriend bought the World of Warcraft Battle Chest, Wrath of the Lich King, &amp; Cataclysm. He downloaded them to our previous computer, but now we have a new one and when he took out the first disk from the battle chest he severely scratched it. Anyway, I tried putting in disk #2, and it said I couldn't do it without disk 1 (which is scratched!).  I've recently put in Wrath of the Lich King (it came with 2 CDs), and it said that I haven't downloaded the original and asked me if I wanted to downloaded. I clicked "yes" -- does that mean its downloading WoW &amp; The Burning Crusade? Or do we need to buy it all again?  We just bought the whole set on June of this year...
20704
So my dad told me about a short story he had once read. It must be older like before 1986. It is about two men who traveled through space and found a dead planet. On it was what he calls a super museum. They set it up as a heritage/legacy for those in the universe that were intelligent enough to find it. As a twist it turns out that this planet is actually earth and that the men must have traveled to the future. (Kind of like planet of the apes)  I have found a few topics that looked similar. But it's not resurrection bij a.e van Vogt.(because they know it is earth they are visiting) Although this seems very similar. He also says it is not all the way back from michael Shaara.   Anybody have any idea? If it helps, the story was translated to Dutch and was in a book with other stories as well. I don't know if they were from one author or various. It has been bugging me for years as my dad always told me the story moved him deeply and as I love science fiction I would love to read it. Just found this site so thought to give it a go.thanks in advance!
58976
If someone wanted to learn to speak Tolkien's Elvish languages ( and ) is there a guide to how to go about doing so?   Are there any authoritative sources regarding which language should be tackled first?
53801
I really want to reread a book I read years ago. I can't remember the title, but I remember that for most of the book it just appears to be a classic fantasy book, but part way through the main character finds a ruined city and a robot, and it turns out it is a post-apocalyptic future several millennia after a nuclear war. Does anyone know what book this is? I really want to read it again.  As a side note, it could be by Philip K. Dick, but I'm not positive on that one.
94385
I was looking at the map of Middle-Earth and it made me wonder. Does Middle-Earth refer to the time frame in which the LOTR stories took place, or does it refer to the area in which the LOTR tales unfold? To help clarify what I'm asking: Is the rest of Tolkiens' unmapped world Middle-Earth too, or is Middle-Earth the era?
38394
All I've ever been able to find is that they arrived in Middle-earth and left to go do something outside of the scope of the story. Has anyone ever found any additional information?
39120
Is there any data in Tolkien (books/letters/etc..) to explain why there were precisely 9 Men rings and 7 Dwarf rings and 3 Elf rings? (the latter assumes that Sauron planned the number of Elvish rings to be 3 before he was thwarted by Elves making the rings themselves)  Was it because of the amount of tribes/kings he needed to deal with? Some magical/power limitations? Magical properties of numbers 9 and 7 (ala 7 Horcruxes)? A whim of Sauron's?    UPDATE: Looks like 3 and 7 are explained in the answers (3 elf lords and supposedly 7 Dwarf houses, though nobody provided canon proof).  What was NOT explained was why there were 9 Man rings?    If 9 was a meaningful amount, why? If it was merely "19-7-3" leftover, then why were there 19 total non-One rings made?
76730
It has been a while since I read the Lord of the Rings novels (don't have a copy at the moment) but I seem to recall he went to Hobbiton at least once, as the young hobbits were always excited to see him.   Did he travel there often?
51863
At the end of ‘The Return of the King’, Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf and others boarded a boat and left Middle-earth for Valinor.  Is there any canon explanation why they couldn’t just take the ring there in the first place and leave Middle-earth altogether? Would Sauron have gone after them? Couldn’t the elves living there safeguard it?  I do realize that without Frodo taking the ring to Mount Doom there would be no story at all, but I wonder whether or not there is any canon explanation for this.