I decided to replace my battered copies of these books, and wanted to go for the set of three (Yes, I know I am excluding the Hobbit here) rather than the single volume edition. This is of course the first of them. The reason I like this particular edition is of course because it is illustrated by Alan Lee, whose illustrations are both hugely popular and also what inspired and informed what we see in the movies directed by Peter Jackson. Alan Lee has also illustrated many other great pieces of work, not only J.R.R Tolkien books, for example, there is a wonderful edition of the Mabinogion that he illustrated.
A second reason to buy these is in the bigger-size of the books. They are large :) And of course, the best bit is that they are hardback, so I do not have to worry about them falling apart like my other ones did.
If you have not read these books, but always wanted to, I would suggest picking up this version of them. The illustrations are wonderful, and the division into three parts combined with the size of the books themselves, make the story very approachable :)