A Christmas Gift

Books are my favorite thing to get as a gift. They have been since I could read. I still remember all those birthdays when I was 7, 8, 9 or about that age when all I got was Redwall books. I'm pretty sure that every year since I've been able to read I've had a Barnes and Noble Giftcard written on my list.

About the beginning of December, we went to Barnes and Noble and I, being the Tolkien nerd that I am, went directly over to his part of the fantasy section. I think I was looking for his Unfinished Tales, or Tales from the Perilous Realm, or something along those lines. But I found a beautiful, hardcover, illustrated version of the Hobbit that I immediately fell in love with. You know Alan Lee? If not, he is an amazing artist who does a lot of drawing in the Tolkien realm and even helped out with the set in the movies. And I believe he's helping on the Hobbit movie too, though I could be mistaken. Anyway, that immediately became the number 1 thing on my list.

Christmas eve came, and I received a Barnes and Noble gift card from my brother. It didn't take me five seconds to decide what I was getting with it. So we went to Barnes and Noble later that week and. . . their only copy had been sold. Okay, that's fine, we'll go to a different one on our way to our DSLR class (my mother and I took two DSLR classes before I went to England in the hopes that I would know how to take pictures with my camera.) But we went twice and both times it was gone there too. Now I was no longer in the it's-alright, I'll-just-wait mood but in the I'm-leaving-for-England-in-one-week-and-I-won't-get-my-book mood. So we had the store order it for us. But it wouldn't come before I got to England.

Well, thankfully it DID come while I was gone and my parents picked it up for me and when I got home it was one of the first things I ran to see. And now... for pictures. (If you haven't read the Hobbit and you don't want even the slightest hint of anything that could happen, don't look at the pictures. I didn't post any that would spoil anything but if you want the whole, entire, everything to be a surprise than I suggest not looking to be safe.)

Isn't it beautiful? It's the perfect book to read aloud, with little kids sitting on your lap and looking at the pictures. And reading the Hobbit aloud makes it twice as good. And it was written for children. So this is all around the perfect version of the Hobbit. Now to find some little kids to read it to... that's the only trouble. :)

I think Barnes and Noble knows me too well.

My current collection of Tolkien. Shockingly, I didn't own the Lord of the Rings till my birthday last year. Despite the fact that I've been an overly obsessive fan since I was 7. Or maybe earlier. My parents owned the books, why would I buy them myself? I was much more content to just buy every single Brian Jacques book that came out. :) And then I realized I won't always be able to read my parent's version, I bought the version above with a gift card. Yes, I get gift cards a lot. Oh- and no, I haven't ever read the Silmarillion, I'm still only half way through (hangs head in shame). I try... but too often school gets in the way.

If you don't already own the Hobbit, you should get this version. It totally rocks. :)