J.R.R. Tolkien Reading Order

3 books (1983–2008)

Start with Over the Rainbow and read in order.

#	Title
1	Over the Rainbow 1983Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Random House Book of Fantasy Stories 1997Buy 🇺🇸
3	Tales Before Narnia: The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction 2008Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (1979–1979)

#	Title
1	Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien(With: Christopher Tolkien) 1979Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1988–1992)

Start with The Return of the Shadow, the first of 4 books in the History Of The Lord Of The Rings Collections series.

#	Title
1	The Return of the Shadow 1988Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Treason of Isengard 1989Buy 🇺🇸
3	The War of the Ring 1990Buy 🇺🇸
4	Sauron Defeated 1992Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (1993–1993)

#	Title
1	Morgoth's Ring: The Legends of Aman 1993Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1992–1999)

Start with Tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle-Earth and read in order.

#	Title
1	Tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle-Earth 1992Buy 🇺🇸
2	Realms of Tolkien: Images of Middle-Earth 1996Buy 🇺🇸
3	Poems From The Hobbit 1999Buy 🇺🇸

9 books (1921–2021)

Start with A Middle English Reader and Vocabulary, the first of 9 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	A Middle English Reader and Vocabulary 1921Buy 🇺🇸
2	Beowulf and the Critics 1936Buy 🇺🇸
3	Tolkien on Fairy-stories 1939Buy 🇺🇸
4	Letters from Father Christmas(With: Baillie Tolkien) 1976Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 1981Buy 🇺🇸
6	Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode 1982Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Monsters and the Critics: The Essays of J.R.R. Tolkien 1983Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Insiders' Guide 2002Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Nature of Middle-Earth(With: Carl F. Hostetter) 2021Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (1967–1967)

#	Title
1	The Road Goes Ever On 1967Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1945–1967)

Start with Leaf by Niggle and read in order.

#	Title
1	Leaf by Niggle 1945Buy 🇺🇸
2	Smith of Wootton Major 1967Buy 🇺🇸

12 books (1949–2023)

Start with Tales from the Perilous Realm, the first of 12 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	Tales from the Perilous Realm 1949Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Adventures of Tom Bombadil 1962Buy 🇺🇸
3	Tree and Leaf 1964Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Tolkien Reader 1966Buy 🇺🇸
5	Poems and Stories 1971Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Silmarillion 1977Buy 🇺🇸
7	Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth 1980Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Peoples of Middle-earth 1996Buy 🇺🇸
9	A Tolkien Miscellany 2002Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Fall of Arthur 2013Buy 🇺🇸
11	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo(With: Christopher Tolkien) 2021Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Battle of Maldon(With: Peter Grybauskaus) 2023Buy 🇺🇸

9 books (1945–2017)

Start with The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, the first of 9 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun 1945Buy 🇺🇸
2	Farmer Giles of Ham 1949Buy 🇺🇸
3	Drawings by Tolkien 1976Buy 🇺🇸
4	Roverandom 1998Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Children of Húrin 2007Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún 2009Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Story of Kullervo 2015Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Lost Manuscript 2016Buy 🇺🇸
9	Beren and Lúthien 2017Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (2007–2022)

Start with The Children of Húrin(By: Christopher Tolkien) and read in order.

8 books (1983–2018)

Start with The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, the first of 8 books in the The History of Middle-Earth series.

#	Title
1	The Book of Lost Tales, Part One 1983Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two 1983Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Lays of Beleriand 1985Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Shaping of Middle-earth 1986Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Lost Road and Other Writings 1987Buy 🇺🇸
6	The War of the Jewels 1994Buy 🇺🇸
7	The History of Middle Earth Index 2002Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Great Tales of Middle-Earth 2018Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (1937–1974)

Start with The Hobbit, the first of 5 books in the The Lord of the Rings series.

#	Title
1	The Hobbit 1937Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Fellowship of the Ring 1954Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Two Towers 1954Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Return of the King 1955Buy 🇺🇸
5	Bilbo's Last Song 1974Buy 🇺🇸