For somebody who wasn’t as interested in the lore of Middle Earth and Tolkien as I, David Day’s ‘The Battles of Tolkien’ would not have been a good book. It really wasn’t what I expected, given I assumed a recount of the battles that made up the rich history of Middle Earth, though Day didn’t summarise the events as expected and rather gave analytical insight into Tolkien’s inspiration and sources. Some of this was really interesting, especially the motive behind the Ents march on Isengard being Tolkien being disappointed by the march of Birnam Wood in Macbeth! Day's writing style was noting noteworthy or special either, and flat in occasions, though this was primarily a reference book. I would however have much preferred this if it were mixed with retellings of the battles themself rather than them just being name dropped, though it is assumed these are well known battles as the target reader demographic is those with deep interests in Tolkien’s lore and would be very familiar with such battles.

I will also note that this was far from a 250 page book, more so 75, because it was full of half pages of text and illustrations, and these illustrations were incredible and enhanced the reading experience so much, whereas I would’ve appreciated some more actual content. The reading experience of the book itself in the way it is set out is however wonderful. I appreciated ‘Battles of Tolkien’ but in the same regard it just really wasn’t everything I wanted it to be.