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I have a very nice set of LotR; got them when I was fifteen. Took me a good five months to earn the money for them, at 25 or 30 bucks per book.

I also got a lovely copy of The Hobbit for a birthday - good quality, with some nice pictures of Smaug and Bilbo and the Dwarves. Basically, you can tell by my bookshelf what books I'm fond of - they're usually beaten up, but if I really really love them they're hardcovers and practically immaculate, because of the care I take in reading them.

My trilogy is the 1975 paperback edition and in the back of each book it says

"To order by mail, send $1.25 per book plus .25 cents per order for handling to Balantine Cash Sales, PO Box 505, Westminster, Maryland 21157. Please allow three weeks for delivery"

Think they'd still honor it? LOL

My Silmarilion is the 1979 paperback edition...I imagine it's the first paperback edition, because my Mom wouldn't get it for me in hardback, but she knew how desperately I wanted it and got it as soon as it came out in paperback. All three books are pretty beat up, I just keep reinforcing them with clear package tape! I'm very attached to them.

I've just gone through paperback set after paperback set...I think I'm up to three sets or so at this point. Of course, I had to share those with lots o' other siblings, so it's no wonder they didn't survive long! My current set is also out on loan in three different locations, and it's only the cheapie movie version so I don't have a lot of faith in its longevity.

I do however have a beautiful version of The Hobbit. My brother (jrherreid) gave it to me for Christmas. It's a special edition (hard-cover, gold colored) from a few years ago, really well made and with a lot of Tolkien's own sketches and notes mixed in, plus a big fold-out map, if I remember right.

That's another poster I need - a nice big map of Middle Earth! I did go out and buy the atlas of Middle Earth that someone put together. It's a really interesting book - they tell times and distances for all the traveling in the books, plus have maps of everything from Middle Earth in its entirety to Bag End to Moria, etc.