These are the hard-copy editions I use for my Tolkien posts. I use them because they are the ones I happen to own; I am as specific as possible here because the pagination does not match up from one edition to the next.
I consider only The Hobbit, LOTR, The Silmarillon, and a few other things like some of the poems published in The Tolkien Reader to be canon. I may look at The Book of Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales, and The History of the Lord of the Rings at some point, but for now I consider all that stuff draft material, and Tolkien drafts are sort of a rabbit-hole.
Bibliography
The Silmarillion, Illustrated by Ted Naismith. 1998. Houghton-Mifflin. (Original text copyright Allen & Unwin, 1977.)
The Hobbit. 1973. Ballantine edition.
The Lord of the Rings. 1994 hardcover boxed edition. Text conforms to standard Houghton Mifflin edition, 1998. Cited in-text as: “Fellowship of the Ring,” “Two Towers,” and “Return of the King.”
Foster, Robert. The Complete Guide to Middle Earth. I am unsure about the year because my copy of this book has no covers. I have literally read it to shreds. Published by Del Rey, I think c. 1987.
Sourcerer 
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http://parttimemonster.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/lotr-a-brief-history-of-the-rings-of-power/
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Have you thought about adding the Reader’s Guide to LotR? I’m finding it a great resource. It’s paged for the 50th Anniversary editions, but it’s easy enough to find your way around with other editions.
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I am not familiar with it, I will have to look into it, it sounds very useful. Thanks for mentioning it to me!
At some point I may put a bibliography for Tolkien readers. This is my working bibliography – I write about Tolkien at least once a week, and most of the stuff I do is so detailed I have to cite it, so I stick a link to this page at the end of those posts.
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This one is by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. It’s amazingly useful. I started a daily LotR / exercise blog (seriously) and this, along with the Histories really help me to dig in.
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cool, I followed you, I’ll come & check it out. I am always looking for people who blog about Tolkien.
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Thanks! That said, I do too many blogs and I think the link in my name was to my photography blog. My LotR blog is: http://sweatingtomordor.wordpress.com
Thanks!
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