Alex Claman

I’m not sure what’s in the air this year in and around the corners of the internet where I read and listen to speculative fiction critique and reviews, but a number of people have embarked on projects to read through at least some components J.R.R. Tolkien’s output.

Austin, Cameron, and Michael over at Shelved by Genre are in the midst of their proclaimed “Lord of the Year” (whence my own title) reading The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The Silmarillion. Their project was the first one that I learned about, and it motivated me to pick up the books and follow along. As of late May 2026 I’m about to finish chapter 2 of book 2 of Fellowship, which means that after tomorrow morning I’ll be 4 episodes “behind;” I’d like to catch up to the podcast by August, but I don’t feel any need to crunch at this point just to get there. Of these five books, the only one that I’ve read before is The Hobbit over two decades ago (although technically my dad was the one reading it to me).¹

Three SFF authors and reviewers are also working through The Lord of the Rings at the moment (organized in order of start date): Roseanna Pendlebury started in August 2025, Abigail Nussbaum started in December 2025, and Nick Hubble started in January 2026. (For comparison’s sake, I started The Hobbit in March of this year). I’ve read some of Roseanna and Abigail’s work before, and it’s likely that I’ve read some of Nick’s, but I can’t place their name as easily.

I’m writing this mostly as an organizational post for myself, since I’m working on getting caught up on the three written readalongs just like I am the podcast. The links below are for the posts that I no longer have in my feed reader for whatever reason:

• A Reader of Else
  • A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 1
  • A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 2 – A Very Efficient Conspiracy
  • A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 3 – Blurring Boundaries and Scanning Songs
  • A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 4 – Intrusion of the Epic
  • A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 5 – Proper Noun, Place Name, Backstory Stuff
  • A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 6 – The Limits of Foresight
• Asking the Wrong Questions
  • The Great Tolkien Reread: Introduction
• Prospective Culture
  • 50 Year Reread of The Lord of the Rings – Introduction: Three Different Books
  • 50-Year Reread of The Lord of the Rings – 1: A Sequel to The Hobbit
  • 50-Year Reread of The Lord of the Rings – 2: On Hobbits
  • 50-Year Reread of The Lord of the Rings – 3: Elves, Elf-friends and “Friends of Gandalf”