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[Bêthberry]

Welcome Glorthelion. This is certain the place to exercise your enthusiasm for Tolkien once you've hit the books.

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I suggest you read Unfinished Tales next. It provides some fascinating extra stuff to complement what you have already read. It will also ease you in to the "edited drafts and fragments" format which you will find on a grander scale in HoME. And IMO some of the later volumes of HoME are much more approachable than the early ones. Don't feel obliged to start at the beginning! The ones which concern LOTR are perhaps more user friendly...

Well, I'm going to have to take a slightly different direction than Mithalwen, who offers good advice about UT. The later HoMes are helpful for resources but as someone who just recently turned to the first two volumes, Book of Lost Tales I and II, I have to say that I am entranced by Tolkien's storytelling. Which is to say that skipping all the commentary doesn't do any harm.

On the other hand, you could just read all the threads here and jump into the discussions.