Alternative Ways to Enjoy Tolkien

This post is quite an aside from normal content but just figured I'd give a shout-out to a few different mediums to experience Tolkien's world that you may not be familiar with.

Video Games

Lord of the Rings Online - This is my highest recommendation because its free. It's like World of Warcraft in terms of gameplay with a substantial focus on the plot and just exploring the really beautiful and varied world. It's a rare game that I enjoy just wandering around looking at the scenery and really feel a part of the game. It's worth the download and worth some time. If interested, I play on the Landroval server under the name Angalph, a human knight from an area of Gondor. (bonus points to those of you who can tell me what his name means and why I named him such).

LOTR: The Third Age - it's a Final Fantasy Clone, but surprisingly a lot of fun. No surprises in terms of what you fight/experience but it's well done and a quick play through. If you have a last gen console, check it out! It's backwards compatible on the 360, but there are a few visual bugs that I've noticed. Play on the original system if possible!

LOTR: The Battle for Middle-Earth II - A pretty solid RTS game. It's worth playing if you enjoyed playing Age of Empires or Starcraft. Not terribly original, but it holds up alright and can be played on the PC so can be acquired pretty cheaply. Also on Xbox 360! 

Don't expect too much canonicity here though. They're all fairly open with lore.

Books

The History of Middle-Earth - it's a 12 volume set of Tolkien's notes and stories compiled into a narrative. Very information dense but very informative! I haven't read them all but check out entries of wikis extensively. Read the real trilogy a few times first (with appendices!)

The Children of Hurin - a very accessible work by Tolkien that explores one of the Silmarillion's key stories. Turin Turambar is one of the children of Hurin, and is one of the greatest of Tolkien's heroes. In fact, it's Turin who is foretold to return at the Dagor Dagorath (the apocalypse essentially) and will lead the races of Middle Earth against the hosts of Morgoth (the original big bad guy before Sauron) who escapes his prison. Turin is a bad ass.

Films

Born of Hope - This is a 71 minute fan-film (on a $25,000 budget...) tells the story of Aragorn's parents and the Rangers in the North. It's probably the best fan film I've ever seen. Fantastic quality. You really could imagine this  being a much larger Hollywood production.

The Hunt for Gollum - This 39 minute short film chronicles the time in which Aragorn and Gandalf hunted Gollum in the wildlands. Also exceptionally well made and well-received. Worth your time if you're just sitting on Reddit.

Music

Complete Songs and Poems - This excellently well made volume is a work from the Tolkien Ensemble, an orchestra that puts Tolkien's work to music, and featuring great vocals from a variety of artists including Christopher Lee (Saruman...) The works are very good, my personal favorite is the Song of Beren and Luthien. Really brings the poetry to life. I have this on my computer if you're interested.

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I didn't go into some of the obvious ones like Howard Shore's soundtracks or Peter Jackson's films because I assume my readers know about them. I also didn't include The Silmarillion but that is a great first step to exploring Tolkien beyond Lord of the Rings.

Enjoy!