Worth the read for a die hard Tolkien fan. The biography was very brief, that's O.K. Some of the essays were very interesting. Gotta admit, I skimmed the poetry and what I call fanfic. The recipes look very good, although I'm not sure they are authentic to the works of Tolkien. There is a recipe for Gollum which requires one to bake the fish. I think he would hate that. ( )