Why read The Book of Lost Tales, Part One?

Book cover of The Book of Lost Tales, Part One

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Book of Lost Tales, Part One as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Ben Monroe

Author

This is an odd book in some ways. It’s half narrative, half editorial commentary. But I absolutely loved it as a look at the creative process and writing for the sheer joy of writing.

What we have here is a few early stories by Tolkien which show the genesis of his Middle-earth setting along with commentary by his son Christopher. You see Tolkien’s ideas evolve, which was a great reminder that writing is often about polishing, editing, and distilling concepts.

But it was also fun to read, knowing it was just stuff Tolkien was playing with. At the time of…

From Ben's 3 favorite reads in 2023.