My mistake in buying the HoME series
I'm almost done reading the History of Middle Earth series. I bought the series many years ago but only now did I find the time to finish them.
My mistake? I bought the wrong edition. I have the separate HarperCollins paperbacks from 2002, with beautiful Howe cover illustrations.
But.
Unfortunately the paper quality sucks. I would not ordinarily complain, but in this case it results in many of the copied original manuscripts and maps end up unreadable, a mess of black ink.
In addition page 105 and 106 of Morgoth's Ring are missing. So I bought another copy of the book, a 1994 edition (I guess the original?) and the difference is dramatic. There's only one manuscript page but it's incredible in comparison.
So folks, if you want the paperbacks avoid the Howe editions. I really regret not being able to see more of Tolkien's own hand clearly.