Reddit mentions of Tolkien Fantasy Tales Box Set (The Tolkien Reader/The Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales/Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)

The mass market paperbacks published by Del Rey are a pretty good way to go about it. They don't have the textual issues that plagued a few of the early paperbacks, but they're cheap, and if you dig a bit you can even find some that don't have any movie covers (that's what I did). They released The Hobbit, LOTR, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Hurin, and the first five volumes of HOME. Sadly, they don't have volumes VI-XII, but they generally run between $5 and $8 each, so they're by far the cheapest way of getting a lot of Tolkien in a matching set. Plus you can stick the books in your pockets (if your pockets aren't to small) and just carry them around with you to read whenever, which I've done with a few, it can be very relaxing.


if he loves LOTR, but hasn't read past it, I would go with this. It's a good place to start without getting too overwhelmed by the Histories.

[I got it this box set] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345466462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EFVEDbE29DHG0)

He retranslated three different stories that were published together posthumously, I think.

Children of Hurin, Silmarillion Box Set including Sil, UT, Sir Gawain and Tolkien Reader.

Can't seem to find HoME vols 6-12. Children of Hurin is a different cover style but same publisher.

Get him the Tolkien Fantasy Tales Box Set. Not too expensive, includes The Silmarillion.

Edit: Good thing you didn't wait 'til the last possible moment to buy a gift! ;>) Just ship them as a gift.

You can find some more obscure things bundled together. Like this. Or again here is The Hobbit, LotR, and The Silmarillion in another expensive set.

Individually is probably the way to go, again aside from a Hobbit/LotR set of which there are many different editions of.