How did you begin to like LotR??

[Curufin]

However, and now I'm not trying to point a finger at you or anyone else, sometimes I get the feeling that I'm "not allowed" to like Tolkien because I haven't read all of his books and am thus quite ignorant of some of the background.

This isn't what I feel or mean to get across at all.

As I said (and will say again) - the definition of a 'fan' should be self-defined - if you say you're a Tolkien fan, then I'll believe you. As for the other books, well, it just depends what you like. If you're not interested in the topics in The Sil or The HoME, then don't read them! I'm not going to think any less of people who don't enjoy that stuff. Even I'll say that the HoME can get tediously academic sometimes (do I really care what color ink that note was written in...? ). I put off reading Children of Húrin for a year because I can't stand the character. I don't think that makes me less of a Tolkien fan. Just as I don't think less of you because you haven't read the Silm and The HoME. I asked Kennashi for two reasons - a) someone did something very similar to me when I joined the other board, that was how I found the texts in the first place. 2) I want to know who out there has read all these texts so I know who I can discuss them with. Nothing snobbish or 'uppity' about my intentions.

You've got to realize, people, I've come here from a board where the Lit forums are beyond snobby. I read most of the books the first time simply so that I could take part in discussion, and I still feel unable and unworthy in a lot of cases. It takes a bit of time to get over that kind of atmosphere.