Lord of the Rings (audio books -- not dramatization?)

[darkjester]

It's been a few years since I last read The Lord of the Rings, and with the movie coming out, everyone's rereading (or reading for the first time --shame on you! ) the series. I've just gone through The Fellowship of the Ring but with real life in my way now (I originally read the series in high school), finding a good stretch of leisure-reading time is tough.

Anway, I've got a long drive ahead of me for Thanksgiving, and I was considering picking up a copy of the trilogy on audio tape (or CD), but I notice that a lot of what's out there is the BBC dramatization. I'm interpretting "dramatization" to mean that it's not the books, word for words, but rather the dialogue and key points of imagery. Is this right? Has anyone heard these recordings?

I'm looking for a copy of the series, word for word as it was written. Does anyone know where I can get this? The cheaper the better...

Something about driving with that huge book on my steering wheel doesn't sound... well... too safe to me.

 

[Nefrodite]

i've also seen these lord of the rings box sets out there..they don't seem to be unabridged. ive listened to one book unabridged, and that was about 10 cds i think. audiobooks only ok if your doing something else at the momment because they read so damn slow. I bet most readers could get through the book atleast 4x faster then listening on the audiobooks

 

[darkjester]

Ah... but now the question is: Where can I get those unabridged copies? Amazon, eBay, B&N all seem to love this BBC dramatization.

Suggestions?

 

[Nefrodite]

http://www.recordedbooks.com/tolkien_edu.cfm?criteria=title%20like%20%27%25Hobbit%25%27

not sure if this is the place, i checked it out of the local library seems like it though.

 

[sciencetoy]

I picked it up at Barnes & Noble. It says unabriged in large letters. They had four or five versions but only one says unabriged. I'm the same as you, want to reread b4 the movie comes out. I picked up the BBC dramatization at the library without realizing what it was, and I didn't much like it.