content: If someone wanted to write a book about Tolkien & Middle Earth, they should have researched a little better. Not *this* garbage! Tolkien was a CATHOLIC -- & a hard-liner at that. Catholic. Not Buddhist, not Pagan & certainly NOT Gnostic (sheesh! Some of this stuff in this book was hard to read because it was so WRONG)! Yes, he got some of his ideas from mythology (the myth part of the book is ok, I guess. But, there are so many *other* *better* books about myth out there than *this*... I know I've read better). But, the books are basically Catholic. Just read the Sil & you'll see what I mean! There's hardly *anything* in here about Tolkien's Catholic upbringing as it pertains to the books. If I want the *real* story on Tolkien & what he believed & wrote, I'll stick w/Tolkien's Letters & Joseph Pearce.I shouldn't have bought this book, but... well, I'm a sucker for anything Tolkien.....