There have been many editions of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien published over the years.
But there hasn’t been one like this! The evolution of the eBook continues!
The Hobbit Enhanced Edition will be published on the Kindle and iBooks tomorrow. It shows the strength that the eBook medium brings to the industry, the wonderful tale of Bilbo Baggins featuring color images and audio from the late great J.R.R. Tolkien. Some readers won’t care for this; they just want their physical book and nothing more. But there are a growing segment of our reading population who love eBooks and the additional content they can deliver—audio and pictures!
Here is a bit more about the new eBook enhanced edition of The Hobbit:
Exclusive to this Enhanced version of the eBook are new high-resolution colour images of all of Tolkien’s illustrations for the book, many of which are also included in their earlier black-and-white versions, which can be revealed by a simple swipe of the screen. A Foreword by Christopher Tolkien examines the writing of the book, complete with illustrations including manuscript pages and unused drawings. Finally, the Enhanced eBook includes some recently discovered audio recordings of J.R.R. Tolkien reading excerpts from The Hobbit, including the dwarves’ party song, the account of their capture by the three trolls, and Bilbo Baggins’s terrifying encounter with the hideous Gollum.
Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and contented life, with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home. Then one day the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services—as a burglar—on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon. Bilbo’s life is never to be the same again.
The Hobbit was an instant success when it was first published in 1937, and 75 years later Tolkien’s epic tale of hobbits, elves, dwarves, goblins, myth, magic and adventure has lost none of its appeal.
For me, I find the release of the eBook fascinating from a historical stand point. J.R.R. Tolkien ardently disliked industrialization, the development of the automobile, electric lights, and other technological progress destroying the English countryside and society as he knew it. I have no doubt Tolkien loved a good library. Therefore, I wonder what would he think about the Kindle and like devices? Would he embrace them as a means to educate and storytell? Or would he shun them, hate them, like Gollum did the Baggins?
I’m leaning toward the latter. Tolkien would not be a fan of the eBook. It does, however, have some remarkable abilities that a normal book does not possess—audio and video capability. I think in the future we are going to see a lot more “enhanced” editions of books we love.
In the meantime, we can start with one of the best books of all time!
The Hobbit Enhanced Edition is published tomorrow on several eBook platforms!
Will there be an ePub edition for all the other ebook clients out there?
It is sad that people have to rely on pictures and audio. Whatever happened to the power of imagination? I will always read books. I refuse to burn my eyes out looking at a screen for hours. A kindle or a nook will never replace a book. The feel of it, the smell of it, and what pictures can be unleashef in your mind can never be replicated or replaced by a soulless screen in a box.
I used to think I wouldn’t like the ebook thing, but once you pick one up, you realize it was never about holding the book, and feeling the weight in your hand, its all about the words on the page, and since those don’t change from format to format, the ebooks are books that are simply more transportable. Love it or hate it, the ereaders are here to say, and anyone who reads off of one is not any less of a book lover than someone who wants pages to turn, because in the end, the same words are read by all.
Here’s a hint: if you can “smell” your book, it’s probably mildew.
And what is so wrong about “relying on pictures and audio”? Audio? That predates literacy with oral storytelling. The digital book is simply an evolution of a product. What matters is the story, not the technique itself. People who have a preference for one technique over another is fine, but it’s nonsense to “lament” other ways. I’m so over the neo-luddites who have made an idol (or even a fetish) of the printed book.
I have a kindle and an iPad. My wife and I are pregnant with twins, and I will be buying a new copy of the hobbit and the lord of the rings to read to them. I may buy it someday for kindle but I want to hand them the first book that they ever heard even if it does end up with spitup on it 8-).