The Hobbit Official Movie Guide Books

The official guide books to The Hobbit movies by Brian Sibley make really cool companions for Tolkien fantasy fans. Packed with information and fun to read as well as good gifts.

I am lucky to receive a lot of new Hobbit books as gifts since I'm a fan of the books and movies. Today I'm going to be talking about some of my favorite books which are the Official Movie Guides written by Brian Sibley.

These particular books really provide a great read and they are really well written - I've devoured them from cover to cover! There are currently 3 to buy which include guides to An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies. Here you'll get my impressions on one of these delightful reads.

First Impressions on An Unexpected Journey Guide

There are Three Official Books on the Movies by this Author

The first time I dipped into the An Unexpected Journey guide book, I spent a long time just looking though and enjoying all the photos that lavishly fill the book from start to finish. This book has in excess of 168 pages which are literally packed with photos. Right from the very first interior page which has a full page shot of Gandalf the wizard arriving in Hobbiton down to the last page which ends with Gandalf again who is pictured on his quest at Erebor or The Lonely Mountain.

There are lots of behind the scenes and on-set photos from the filming of The Hobbit movie An Unexpected Journey. I love the photos that have been included of the famed Bag End Hobbit home and, in particular, Bilbo's Study. A close-up shot of Bilbo's decorative calender has days are listed as: Sterday, Sunday, Monday, Trewsday, Hevensday, Mersday and Highday. That's really neat and I really want one of those for myself. You can get Hobbit Calendars but not like the one Bilbo Baggins owns.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide

~~$14.58~~ $9.99

View on Amazon

This is my book that I have reviewed. My biggest disappointment was that they did not make it available in hardback. Otherwise it's a fantastic book and makes great extra reading for fans of the movies.

In this guide, you get to see a lot of the props exactly as they are on set and not with the rendered backgrounds that are actually added in specifically for The Hobbit movie such as sections from Goblin Town and also the amazing twisted Rhosgobel which is Radagast's unique tree home. There are tons of photos of costumes and the characters which I particularly like. If you're hoping for illustrations then this is the wrong book to get because there are not many included - it's mostly photos and accompanying text. There will be plenty more where Tolkien and Middle Earth is concerned.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Official Movie Guide

~~$20.31~~ $2.28

View on Amazon

One disappointing addition is the decision to include a double page spread with a blurred photo of the Dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo on their ponies. That should not have been included as such a large sized image. Thankfully the other lavish photos make up for this one oversight.

Some movie guides are all photos and just fluff when it comes to text but I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed reading this book which I did over a weekend of dipping in and out of it. You get all the background on how Peter Jackson came to film An Unexpected Journey despite not initially being particularly keen on the idea. The history behind how the movie came to be is a compelling read in itself.

There is an awful lot of information on how the characters were brought to life with clothing, wigs and prosthetics which was particularly interesting to me. And there are plenty of interviews with the actors who play the characters too. For anyone interested in the actual making of the first movie then it is a great book to get or to gift. Just a shame they didn't do the first one in a hard cover!