Reorganizing My Library

So, one thing about staying home and practicing social distancing is that it's helped me concentrate on my current project, as well as provided an impetus to learn some about various online virtual meeting programs.

It's also made for a good time to straighten up my Tolkien shelves. By clearing other things away I managed to add a shelf to those dedicated to books on Tolkien, so that I now have eleven shelves of books about Tolkien in my office. At a rough average of about thirty to thirty-five books per shelf, that's a lot of books (somewhere between three hundred and four hundred books). There's a twelfth of my own Tolkien publications (i.e. MR. BAGGINS, WILDERNESS OF DRAGONS, TOLKIEN'S LEGENARDIUM, &c). And this is not counting the shelves of books by Tolkien, shelves for Tolkien journals, a shelf for Tolkien-audio, and a shelf for current projects.*

The main problem with books on Tolkien --and it's a good problem to have-- is that they keep writing new ones. And while I reluctantly gave up trying to get everything a few years ago, there are still interesting and original works coming out that I want to read. So every once in a while I need to integrate the new-ish books into their proper places. I also do some re-arranging to keep essential books, those I frequently consult, ready at hand.

Here's a list of recently added (within the last year or two) or recently moved books:


Amy Amendt-Raduege. THE SWEET AND THE BITTER: DEATH AND DYING IN J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Craig Bernthal. TOLKIEN'S SACRAMENTAL VISION: DISCERNING THE HOLY IN MIDDLE EARTH

John M. Bowers. TOLKIEN'S LOST CHAUCER

Devin Brown. TOLKIEN: HOW AN OBSCURE OXFORD PROFESSOR WROTE THE HOBBIT AND BECAME THE MOST BELOVED AUTHOR OF THE CENTURY  [and yes, all that is in his title]

Jane Chance. TOLKIEN, SELF AND OTHER: "THIS QUEER CREATURE"

Christopher Vaccaro & Yvette Kisor, ed. TOLKIEN AND ALTERITY   [festschrift for Jane Chance].

Oronzo Cilli. TOLKIEN'S LIBRARY: AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST

Lisa Coutras. TOLKIEN'S THEOLOGY OF BEAUTY: MAJESTY, SPLENDOR, AND TRANSCENDENCE IN MIDDLE-EARTH

Leslie A. Donovan, ed APPROACHES TO TEACHING TOLKIEN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND OTHER WORKS     [MLA]   [two copies, one hc one tp]

Martha Driver & Sid Ray, ed. THE MEDIEVAL HERO ON SCREEN: REPRESENTATIONS FROM BEOWULF TO BUFFY

Angie Errigo. THE ROUGH GUIDE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Dimitra Fimi. CELTIC MYTH IN CONTEMPORARY CHILDREN'S FANTASY: IDEALIZATION, IDENTITY, IDEOLOGY

Dimitra Fimi & Thomas Honneger, ed. SUB-CREATING ARDA: WORLD-BUILDING IN J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S WORK, ITS PRECURSORS, AND ITS LEGACIES


[here I'm reserving a spot on John Garth's new book, due out the month after next, so I won't have to redo the shelving when it does arrive]


Catherine McIlwaine. TOLKIEN: MAKER OF MIDDLE-EARTH  [Bodley catalogue]

Vincent Ferre & Frederic Manfrin, ed. TOLKIEN: VOYAGE EN TERRE DU MILIEU

Verlyn Flieger. THERE WOULD ALWAYS BE A FAIRY TALE: MORE ESSAYS ON TOLKIEN

Philip Ryken. THE MESSIAH COMES TO MIDDLE EARTH: IMAGES OF CHRIST'S THREEFOLD OFFICE IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Toby Widdicombe. J. R. R. TOLKIEN: A GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED

Helen White. RACE AND POPULAR FANTASY LITERATURE: HABITS OF WHITENESS


--John R.
current reading: Trilobite book.

*Note that this is also the room that's home to most of my rpgs, with two and a half bookcases filled with D&D rulebooks, boxed sets, and modules, plus another bookcase filled with CALL OF CTHULHU