This question is aimed at mostly die-hard or very knowledgeable Tolkien fans/experts. Let's get the obvious out of the way first. The LOTR movies rocked and I want to read the books, BUT his other works as well. Herein lays my problem: which of his work would be a good start if I want to appreciate Tolkien's work to its full extent. I'm thinking it's a toss up between
The Hobbit and
The Silmarillion, but not so sure.
Another problem, I did some browsing on Amazon and saw that there were several editions of each of his work by different publishers. Some got good reviews, some got negative reviews due to misprints, poor editing, typographical errors and such. I, being a newb, have no idea which edition would have those to avoid because some of them don't even have reviews or have mixed reviews.
Many thanks!
