One of my favorite aspects about the book:

[GuardianRanger]

One of my favorite aspects about the book is that the map is folded in the back. And, if I unfold the map while I'm reading, it folds out so that I can BOTH read the book and see the map. I love that I don't have to keep a finger stuck in the page with the map and flip to it.

It's a nice touch.

[Snaga]

Yes, that is good. I remember fondly the first time I ever read LotR, my dad's copy of the Fellowship had a fold out map, which was great. Unfortunately his copies of TT and RotK did not, so I had the FotR map out, whilst I read the other two!:D These days I'm pretty sure I know where everywhere on the 3rd age maps are, but Beleriand geography seems harder to pick up for some reason.

[GuardianRanger]

These days I'm pretty sure I know where everywhere on the 3rd age maps are, but Beleriand geography seems harder to pick up for some reason.

Yep, I'm with you on that. I've read the older material, some of it a couple of times. But I haven't read it as much as I've read the third age stories.

[Eledhwen]

Yes, that is good. I remember fondly the first time I ever read LotR, my dad's copy of the Fellowship had a fold out map, which was great. Unfortunately his copies of TT and RotK did not, so I had the FotR map out, whilst I read the other two!:D These days I'm pretty sure I know where everywhere on the 3rd age maps are, but Beleriand geography seems harder to pick up for some reason.I have that copy! The map is in red and black too, which makes it very easy to follow.

I spent some time matching Beleriand with LotR Middle-earth, by studying the features that appear on both. It was a useful exercise, and made me realise that a map with both Beleriand and Middle-earth would be very helpful. It would need dates as well as place names (sometimes more than one place name as names evolved); but it wouldn't be too difficult to produce.

It's useful that the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin) survived the cataclysm, as they appear on both maps.