I appreciate how this book catalogues the effort of writing The Lord of the Rings. The constant revisions - Frodo was originally Bingo, Bilbo's son! Aragorn was once a Hobbit named Trotter with wooden shoes! - reveal how much the work was produced by feeling a story out and constantly revising it. Combined with the extraordinary overcommitment of Tolkien to his job as an academic, his own health and his wife's, and the numerous publications he either authored or edited, I am flabbergasted LotR was ever finished. There was just so much to do, and no efficient way to do it. I've tried much more modest writing projects and ended up curled into a little ball.