Is Lord of the Rings too short?

In the foreword of my edition of LoTR Tolkien says that the only criticism he might agree with is, that LoTR was too short. What does everyone think? Would it be better if longer and what would you have in it to make it longer?
At first I thought LoTR is perfect length, but I would like more on Striders early adventures, both with Gandalf and alone. Remember when Strider says that he travelled alot with Gandalf, and how much he learnt from Gandalf. Also how he travelled among men in the east, where many of the men were corrupted by evil, all this would make a great story, and be more of an insight into character and developement of my fave character, Strider.
Maybe Tolkien should have written another book, Adventures of Aragorn

You can found little more on Strider adventure in Lost tale third age

and maybe in HOME but i never read HOME so i'm realy not sure

I wish it had been longer, but it covers almost everything as is. It's not just the length of the book, but how well the story is told. I would have liked a bit more of the ending, (such as some variation of the epilogue in Sauron Defeated) maybe a definitive statement of whether Sam joins the Ringbearers, but then again, the extras might have wrecked the story.

perfect for me.

if you'd like it longer read it slower

Its already over 1000 pages long. Which isn't a problem for me to read, but it can be considered a hassle. IMO, its the perfect length for a book of its caliber.

Whats HOME?

For what it tells, it is perfect. I just wish it never ended!

If I read it any slower I'd never finish it, I already read most bits 2 or 3 times before I go on to next bit

HOME is the History of Middle-Earth. It's the discarded and unfinished texts and drafts for the LOTR and Silm, along with some other material such as The Notion Club Papers, The Lost Road and some other short narratives.

Thanks, please ignore where I just asked you this again in another thread, hadn't read this one yet Though I have another question re HOME, if its discarded, unfinished, whatever then doesn't that mean unpublished? How do people know whats in these texts if they're not published? Or are they published?

Oops... Answered you on the other thread. The material in HoME was previously unpublished, but Christopher started having it published over 10 years ago.

Thanks, I know the books you mean now.

The Lord of the Rings was "written" by Bilbo and Frodo, in association with their friends and with special help from the Wise. Any additional material outside the scope of the story covered in the books would be out of place.

Agreed, but there was still some interesting material in Treason of Isengard and War of the Ring that could have gone into the final version of the story.

I really do not like christopher tolkien;s work
he is a horrible writer
he takes like 32 pages to detail everything!

You don't see much of his potential as writer actually, he put things together, and The Fall of Gondolin was mostly his, but otherwise he just tried to make a consistant narrative from sketches and writings of his father. But I like the Silmarillion

If I read it any slower I'd never finish it, I already read most bits 2 or 3 times before I go on to next bit

If this is true, then you'd better forget reading HOME until reading Lotr is much easier for you...

Trust me, you'll get bored pretty quickly.

You should read the books in this order (each one's a more diffcult read than the last):

The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales
HOME books

Right now I'm about 1/3 of the way through Unfinished Tales; it's difficult to find the right oppurtunity to read it because if I stop reading it for a while I often forget something that happened in the story earlier because it's all so cluttered.

As for the comments about Christopher Tolkien, I think he's a superb editor; Tolkien's works are very hard to work with because of that writing style that he used in his later life, and I personally don't notice who's writing when I read texts that Christopher has edited. I count that as a good thing.

Personally, I think he should have followed in his father's footsteps and expanded upon his creations, but I'm certanly glad he did what he did.

So am I. The drafts and other texts are a real help (if a bit confusing with abandoned ideas). Sometimes they do get boring (3rd or 4th almost identical draft) but it's worth it.

i think it's niether two short nor too long. although with tolkiens writing it probably wouldn't have hurt it.

I think if LOTR got any longer it might actually scare off new readers, after all it is three volumes long and I know some people who find that fact a little scary.