Okay, you're probably busy putting the finishing touches on your wizard's robe and/or brushing the hair on your furry hobbit's feet so that you will be as stylish as possible when you arrive at the movie theater to catch a midnight showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey later this month.

But while you're passing the time getting ready for the new movie, don't forget that you can use the library to read J.R.R. Tolkien's books, books about Tolkien, and other books connected to the LOtR universe. Plus you can also find videos, ebooks, audiobooks, and more! Let's start with an overview of the hobbit-related items in our catalog, and then I'd like to highlight a few cool and unusual items connected to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Books

If you search in our BiblioCommons catalog for books using the keywords "Tolkien" and "hobbit," you will find a lot of stuff, including books by Tolkien, books about Tolkien, The Art of the Hobbit, and much more.

If you search the catalog for books using "Tolkien" and "lord of the rings," then the list grows even bigger. You probably knew that Tolkien's original Lord of the Rings books were in the library, as well as overviews of the series
and books of criticism about the trilogy. But did you also know that you can feed your super fandom with The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth?

eBooks and Audiobooks

If you'd like to immerse yourself in the worlds that Tolkien created on your electronic device, or if you'd like to experience those worlds with your ears instead of your eyes, you can limit your search in our catalog to these different formats.

An ebook version of The Hobbit? Check! An ebook version of the Tolkien Trivia Quiz Book? DOUBLE Check!

Videos

If you think of Tolkien on video, your mind will most likely jump to Peter Jackson's recent films covering the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And watching his film versions of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King will certainly be worthwhile, especially if you want to compare and contrast his adaptations of those novels to his adaptation of The Hobbit.

But if you're willing to expand your search horizons a little further, you might also want to check out the 1977 Rankin & Bass animated version of The Hobbit, or (my personal favorite) the 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated version of The Lord of the Rings. [Wow — check out that crazy rotoscoping technique!]

So... which of Tolkien's books are your favorites, and what are YOUR favorite things connected to the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings?