I was eleven when I first read The Lord Of The Rings in 1970. The Hobbit came for me some time later that year. After wearing out my first set of paperbacks, my SECOND set contained the quote about "buying this and no other" though I always thought that was because of the mimeo-graph copies being sold on campus at Harvard. Anyway, my copies of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales are both first American editions that I bought new when they came out and they are still in very good shape. I'm afraid they spend more time on the shelf and less time before my eyes than they should.
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Yet all the while I sit and think of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet and voices at the door.
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