I'm sure this has been asked before, but I'm looking at getting more Tolkien books. Are the HoME books as great as they look? As of now I own the following:
FOTR TTT ROTK The Hobbit The Silmarillion Unfinished Tales of Numenor and ME The Tolkien Reader
also - Atlas of ME and Complete Guide to ME
I am very much into the peoples and histories, i pretty much see the word Rhun and start trying to find as much info as possible and then go on to another thing like Wainriders, etc....
Tolkien is the greatest author ever - so many landscapes, history, linguistics, creatures... it still shocks me how deep his work is. I just wish he wrote more about the East, Blue Wizards, etc... I almost believe his stuff is REAL history it's so good.
HOME can be very interesting. It elaborates on some fuzzy areas barely scratched in the other books but alot is also discarded idears. I would buy them in there correct order.
As for information about the Eastern lands you could look in the forum search about the 'Lands of Sun' or 'Dark Land' and see what you can find but very little has been published on them.
I would say you already own the "meat" of the series. HOME provides a lot of specialized information on various topics of interest. You could buy the set and go through them in order, or buy them according to your areas of interest. The only one I have read is Lays of Beleriand, but I'll read them all someday.
If you would like more in-depth information on specific THINGS instead of dates and people, I'd recommend doing some online searches. There are a couple of sites that I put in my profile that I use all the time whenever I want to learn more about something without having to dig for the right page in three or four different books.
Well, there are some which might interest you. Here is where you can find more on Rhun in the HOME books (information taken from tuckborough)
The History of Middle-earth, vol. IV, The Shaping of Middle-earth: "The Ambarkanta," Map IV p. 249 and Map V p. 251 (maps showing Middle-earth in ancient times), p. 256
The History of Middle-earth, vol. XII, The Peoples of Middle-earth: "The Heirs of Elendil," p. 197-201, 205; "The Tale of Years of the Third Age," p. 240; "The Making of Appendix A," p. 258-59; "Of Dwarves and Men," p. 295-96, 301, 323 note 28
Also letter #211 seems to contain some information on this subject.
Hope this helps.
And as an advice, definitely buy HOME XII, as in my opinion, it is the most interesting of the collection.
