David Day's A TOLKIEN BESTIARY is a scholarly, definitive and enchantingly beautiful explanation of all the imaginary beasts, monsters, races, nations,deities, fauna and flora of J.R.R- Tolkien's fantasy worlds of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands.
David Day has identified, analyzed and described 129 separate races. Each is lucidly explained in terms of its physical appearance, language, behavior and culture. A TOLKIEN BESTIARY does not retell their stories: its purpose is to make Tolkien’s own books more accessible by identifying his living creatures and explaining their roles in his epic world.
This whole paragraph is giving me deja vu. I know I've read it before. Update: I remember! It was a dream I had last year about an "angle-dragon" that lived in the angles of reality. I had just finished reading China Mieville's The Scar which contains a character that moves through the angles of reality. Weird!