Serkis, who played Gollum in Peter Jackson’s films, recorded all three volumes in 2021, a year after his Hobbit. It is a performance rather than a reading, with distinct voices for a huge cast and the songs and poems sung rather than spoken. That style is why most new listeners love it and why some longtime fans prefer Inglis: it is slower and more theatrical, at about 65 hours against Inglis’s 54. If you know the story from the films, this is the version that will feel most like them.

Recorded around 1990, Inglis’s reading was the standard unabridged version for three decades, and plenty of listeners still rank it first. He is a stage actor with a warm storyteller’s voice, he sings Tolkien’s songs, and he keeps a brisker pace than Serkis. The character voices are gentler, so it feels more like being read to than watching a performance. Pick this if you want Tolkien’s words front and center, or if you tried Serkis and found him too much.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1981, this is a full-cast drama with music and sound effects. Ian Holm plays Frodo, years before he played Bilbo in the films, with Michael Hordern as Gandalf, Robert Stephens as Aragorn and Bill Nighy as Sam. It trims the story to about 12 hours, so Tom Bombadil and much of the travelling are gone, but the big scenes play out like a film for the ears. It works as a first taste, a road-trip listen, or a companion to one of the full readings.

Serkis recorded The Hobbit first, in 2020, and it set the pattern for his Lord of the Rings: a warm narrator’s voice, separate voices for Bilbo, Thorin and the dwarves, a Smaug with real menace and, in Riddles in the Dark, the Gollum you would expect. At about ten and a half hours it is the natural starting point for the whole saga, and a good family listen with older kids.

Inglis’s 1991 Hobbit is the partner to his Lord of the Rings, so choose it if you plan to carry on with his trilogy. It is gentler and closer to a classic bedtime-story reading, which suits a book Tolkien first told to his own children.

The BBC’s 1968 radio version, with Paul Daneman as Bilbo, came 13 years before its Lord of the Rings. It sounds its age, but it is short enough for one long drive, which makes it an easy way to introduce younger listeners to Middle-earth before the full book.

The book Tolkien worked on all his life, published by his son Christopher in 1977: the creation of the world, the wars of the Elves against Morgoth and the downfall of Númenor, all thousands of years before The Hobbit. It reads more like myth than a novel, and a narrator who can pronounce hundreds of Elvish names makes it far easier to follow. Serkis recorded it in 2023. Martin Shaw’s older reading is shorter and more stately, at about 15 hours, and some listeners prefer it for this book.

The darkest of Tolkien’s stories: the tragedy of Túrin, whose whole family lies under Morgoth’s curse, with a dragon at the end of it. Christopher Tolkien shaped it into a single continuous novel in 2007, and Christopher Lee, Saruman in the films, reads it in a deep, grave voice that suits the doom. It stands alone, so you do not need The Silmarillion first.

The love story at the heart of the mythology, a mortal man and an Elf who set out to steal a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. Tolkien had their names carved on the gravestone he shares with his wife, Edith. Christopher Tolkien sets the earliest version beside later prose and verse, so you hear the story grow, read by father and son Timothy and Samuel West.

One of the first stories Tolkien ever wrote: the hidden Elven city of Gondolin and its destruction by Balrogs, dragons and Orcs after a betrayal from within. Like Beren and Lúthien, it follows the tale through several drafts, so it suits listeners already hooked on the First Age more than newcomers.

Stories and essays from across all three Ages, including the history of Númenor, the order of wizards Gandalf belongs to, the seeing-stones, and the hunt for the Ring told from the enemy’s side. At almost 22 hours it is the longest book here, with Christopher Tolkien’s commentary between pieces. Best for fans who finished The Lord of the Rings wanting to know more.

Brian Sibley, who co-wrote the BBC radio drama, gathered Tolkien’s writing on the Second Age into one book in 2022: the island kingdom of Númenor, the forging of the Rings of Power and the rise of Sauron. It is the best companion to The Rings of Power series, and Samuel West reads it.