After years and years of procrastination, I have finally gotten down to reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. And not a moment too soon: copies in local bookstores are disappearing from the shelves faster than they can be stocked, and the prices of the volumes are rising. I was fortunate enough to find copies of Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers on sale in National-Greenbelt. Return of the King seemed to be in heavy demand, as it was nowhere to be found, but I eventually found a stash (albeit at full-price) in Powerbooks-Makati; most other stores — Goodwill and other National branches — were already out of stock. (Of everything, that is, except The Hobbit, of which I already have a copy.)

Some advice: don’t buy the trilogy from “A Different Bookstore” in the Rustan’s wing of Glorietta. They’ve overpriced it horrendously; almost 300 PhP per book, or the whole set of four (including The Hobbit) for over a thousand. Far cheaper to buy it from Powerbooks at about 200 PhP each. If there are any copies left.

Okay, I admit it. I only now set myself to reading it because of the upcoming film. I truly do not want to diminish my experience of such an epic fantasy by watching the film before I have ever read the novels. Not that I doubt the movie will be any good; but of course the real treasure is in the written text.

I’m enjoying every word of it. I started with Tolkien’s appendices to get a primer on the background, culture, and history of Middle-Earth, and now I’m at Frodo’s departure from Hobbiton.