This is about the 2014 edition.

A fat little Hobbit of a book – if Hobbits have university professors of literature and philology.

The original of this book was a slim volume of slim poems, illustrated by charming drawings. This edition is rather more, such that it's now three or four times the size. The first volume is a preface, introducing the context for the collection and the poems themselves. A worthy read. Then the poems, which are still light and charming, with their original illustrations. Now the real meat of this edition: the third volume is a series of literary critiques of each, usually including the full text of an earlier version, often very different.

For a light read, read the second volume. Preferably aloud, and ideally to an audience of cheese and ale-stuffed Hobbits.

The Tolkien scholar though will want to plough through all of it, including that third critique. I say "plough" deliberately, as it's not the easiest of going. But if your interest is in Tolkien himself, or just deeply that of the Legendarium's development, rather than only scampering along to Sam's present, then this will be a heavy but rewarding read for you. ( )

Tolkien reads the 1st poem in this volume on Youtube. Tolkien is still my favorite author of all the Inklings. ( )

This is the first collection of poems I've ever read straight through and I really enjoyed it. Two of the poems are about Tom Bombadil. The rest of the poems are about characters and places one might encounter in his world. Some poems were written by the Hobbits we all know & love, including Sam Gamgee's Stone Troll song! "I'll try my teeth on thee now. Hee now! See now!" ( )

definitely a great example of why adults should read books shelved as 'junior fiction'.
( )

This is basically a collection of poems. They're all similar in style to the Bombadil section of [b:The Fellowship of the Ring|34|The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1298411339s/34.jpg|3204327] and the first few are actually about Tom Bombadil. But, after those are done there are a number of other poems about various topics, some of which are clearly set in Middle-Earth. There's a few about "The Man in the Moon", but there's also ones about hobbits as well.

I've always liked the Tom Bombadil section of Fellowship and Tolkien's other poems, so with a few exceptions, I quite liked this collection. That said, if you don't like that section, you'll probably not like much of this as even the ones not about Bombadil are very similar in style.

I listened to an audiobook version read by Derek Jacobi. Since these are poems, having them read out loud by someone skilled really elevated the experience. ( )