Putting my own, initially incorrect approach to reading this book aside, if you are looking for a deep, highly detailed dive into the formation of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, then this is it. The Return of the Shadow brings you to the very first drafts of The Lord of the Rings – to a world where the familiar foursome of hobbits that are the stars of the trilogy are not Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. Instead, the reader is treated to Faramond, Frodo, Merry, Odo, Folco, and a host of other hobbits that never made their way into starring roles in the final trilogy. The Return of the Shadow also takes its readers into the thought process behind Tolkien’s creation of iconic characters like Treebeard and Strider. Would you believe that in their first incarnations these well-known players in The Lord of the Rings were much different? For example, in Tolkien’s first draft, Treebeard was working in the service of Sauron. And Strider? He began as the hobbit Peregrin! And these characters are set in a Middle-Earth that includes a forgotten elvish land named Hollin, a Rohan that is still filled with horse lords – but whom are also working in the service of Sauron, and where Gondor is known as Ond.

As fascinating as this early version of Middle-Earth may sound, there are some aspects of The Return of the Shadow that were a bit much for this reader. For example, in his writing and analysis of his father’s work, Christopher Tolkien often repeats words and phrases regarding the story that become more and more laborious as you go along. Also, in some cases he beats a dead horse to the point of absurdity. At one point at the beginning of the third phase of this book, Christopher Tolkien revealed that Odo was no longer going to be part of traveling group and that he would be replaced by Frodo. However, he repeats this revelation three or four times within two or three pages. For someone who gets the point the first time, you do not need to have the same information repeated to you several more times within the span of a few pages.

All things considered, I am glad to have read The Return of the Shadow. While it is an incredibly dense book and while it sometimes dives too deeply for my liking, it is truly a novel that captures the impressive scope and wide-ranging depth of not just Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, but the variety of fascinating characters that live within it. If there is a Lord of the Rings fan in your house or in your family and you want to get them a book that they can get lost in for hours, then this book would make the perfect gift.

So do we call these things "Classic NOOKs" now?

Instead, I wanted to use this brief entry to talk about my experience using the NOOK Color to read The Hobbit. You see, The Hobbit was the first book that I purchased on the NOOK Color and the first book that I read from start to finish on the device. And, overall, I have to say that it was a pretty good experience.

There were two features that stood out to me in particular while reading The Hobbit. Here is a brief discussion of those features from my point of view.

Ease of Holding the Device. Look, I’m a book reader. I love reading books. Even when I was a little kid I loved reading books. And, as a long-time avid book reader, I love the entire book reading experience. If you’re a fellow avid book reader, then you know what I’m talking about – the experience of holding a book in your hand and having the thickness of pages in your right hand diminish as the thickness of pages in your left hand increase. You rush towards the end of the book and flip ahead to see how many pages are left and wonder how the author will get to his point before the book is over.

It’s the sensation – the experience – of reading a book that an avid book reader comes to love. Well, with the NOOK Color, you get a different experience, but not an all together bad one.

While there aren’t any pages to flip, the NOOK Color is easy to hold. It sits in your hand comfortably and isn’t too heavy. Plus, all you have to do is touch one side of the screen to flip forward or backward. While this takes away from the traditional experience of reading a book, it does allow the reader to get into a groove with flicking his or her finger to move to the next page. Getting into a groove like that ultimately allowed this reader to get very comfortable reading The Hobbit while laying in bed and not having to move too much to keep the story moving.

Features and Options to Enhance Reading. Not only does the NOOK Color allow the reader to change the layout of the text on each page of the e-book, but after a recent software update you can now change the color of the page, too. I found that this feature came in handy when I wanted to read a portion of The Hobbit before going to bed. Instead of having to keep the lights on in the bedroom, I could turn off the lights and lay in bed and still read comfortably after changing the brightness settings of the screen and changing the color of the page from white to grey. The darker tones made it easier on my eyes before I went to bed – a very nice feature indeed.

One other item that I feel compelled to bring up even though it didn’t directly impact my reading experience is the recent software upgrade for the NOOK Color. You may have read about this software update which essentially turned the NOOK Color into a high-powered, Google Android tablet. Well, I can vouch for how cool of an Android tablet the NOOK Color has become. It has its own app store (though it desperately needs more apps to choose from) as well as built-in e-mail support and a pretty efficient web browser.

Overall, I really enjoyed my reading experience with the NOOK Color. The e-reader sat comfortably in my hand and the ability to change the view, brightness, and color of the pages made the reading experience comfortable for my eyes. If you haven’t tried the NOOK Color yet, then I suggest you head over to your local Barnes & Noble store and try one of the devices that they have on display. It really is that damn good.

Give it a shot – I think you’ll really enjoy the NOOK Color!