I was curious what books about Tolkien's writings people had read, and what they thought of them.

I think I own about four. "Following Gandalf", "Walking with Frodo", "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings" and "The Gospel According to Tolkien". (yes, and all four of them have a religious theme...)

However, I found them VERY interesting, especially "Following Gandalf", which has some really good interesting ideas about epic battles, the wise in Middle Earth, Military Victory or Moral Victory, Human Freedom and Creativity, Moral Responsibility... and so on. It touches on the Hobbit and The Silmarillion as well, which some of the others I've read haven't.
I'd highly recommend it - even if you're not particularly religious (a lot of the book is not about religion at all, rather the themes in the novels), because I found it really insightful - and the author really knew what he was talking about. (I hate books about novels when it becomes apparent that the author hasn't read the novel in question well enough to be an authority on the subject).

So... what have other people read? Recommend or no?

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Ah yes, I've read bits of Following Gandalf it's very good. And you're right, the book doesn't really deal with overtly religious themes--more like literary/mythological/philosophical themes.

I've read an older book called Tolkien's World which was good--basically dealing with Tolkien's inspiration from mythology and the themes of the books;
and I've also read a biograpy called *surprise* J.R.R. Tolkien but it's also older.

One of the best books on Tolkien I've read was called Meditations on Middle-earth, it's a collection of essays from well-known fantasy writers--Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin etc. about their observations, feelings, and writings on Tolkien's work. It's very interesting and a fun read.

My dad owns "Walking with Frodo", and I started reading it, but stoped when my mom told me to clean my room *sigh*

i dont have any religion-related books about tolkien, but i have two books about lotr... i have The Magical Worlds of the Lord of the Rings, which was a pretty easy read, and The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, which has lots of great pictures.

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I've read a few non-religious themed books including, Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism, The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power, and The Battle for Middle-Earth: The Divine Design in "The Lord of the Rings".

I think I'm going to check out Walking with Frodo as it seems like something I'd enjoy.

I'll have to read those. I've also read Fantasy and your Family which is more of an adult-directed book but I read it anyway (:)) and it compares the 'magic' in LotR to the 'magic' in Harry Potter and other contemporary authors' books, as well as pointing out moral differences. Needless to say, LotR comes out on top. I've also read Following Gandalf, and found it quite interesting.

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Oh my goodness! I guess I knew there were books like that out there, but I had never really thought about them or seen any. Now that I've read this I definitely want to go buy some of these. especially Walking with Frodo. That sounds like something I would love. Frodo fascinates me....
Eep! Now I'm excited! I have to go to the bookstore and buy them *starts running franctically and is half way out of her house before she realizes that the bookstore is miles away and she has no car *

I own 'Walking With Frodo' but I haven't read it yet. My friend has both that and 'Walking with Bilbo' which I'l probably get once I finish up reading the Hobbit. I don't really like things about M-E unless you /know/ it's either going to be good fact or something like 'Walking' which is a devotional. Mainly because they have so many errors! I was reading this book, Tolkien's Middle-Earth for Dummie or somthing like that, for a paper and it said so many things that were wrong! I was like "UUGGGGHHH! Even I know that's not right!" And I hadn't even finished reading the LotR books yet. DX

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