h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First of all, good posting. The lord of the rings is quite a big subject and I think you mannaged to convey most of the main ideas.
One thing though: The Lord of the Rings is not a trilogy, and is called so mostly by people who don't know the story very well. It is one story that is devided in different parts (3 or 6, depending how you look at it)but they aren't seperate stories as a trilogy should be

Rod

It does say that it is 7 books within the guide entry but that they were published as a trilogy. My guess is that this was a decision of the publishers

Tolkien himself wanted it published as a single volume, but the publishers couldn't afford to do this.

According to the stuff on my DVD (can't remember which one) the publishers said that they wouldn't bring it out in one book because in post-war Britain paper was still in short supply and very expensive.

Unwin didn't think that people would fork out so much if they weren't sure they would like the book. I have it in an ancient Unwin paperback form in 3 parts, and it is more handy for reading in bed and schlepping around on the train. 6 or 7 would have been too many,and in one volume it's like a housebrick.

The only thing that really bugs me, and I believe it also bugged Tolkien, is the title of the "third book in the trilogy"

Yes, he felt it gave away the ending. It would be like calling Star Wars 5: Luke's Father Strikes Back.

My daughters have searched long and hard for a better name for the second volume, one that ends in '-ing'.

Now there's a chanllenge! If they'd called it Thursday we'd have had no problem would we?

*Strains brain thinking*
No! That wasn't a suggestion!

Well I've got all three parts in one book(Or rather someone in my family has, I'm not sure exactly who it belongs to.) and yes, it is big but not too big,probably due to it's thin pages. But I've never found that a problem really, there are other books like that Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix that have come out recently that are also quite big. The different 'stories' are parts of one, firstly because of the plot and secondly because the fellowship etc have part (1) in big black letters, after the tiltle!