Gaffer Tape said:

Geez, I don't think it was done seamlessly at all, and it's something that's always annoyed me. He visibly retconned the scene in Lord of the Rings by saying that The Hobbit was written by Bilbo, and that the original version was a lie induced by the influence of the ring. That was seamless. But when he went back and changed the scene to the "real" version, that totally fucked everything up and was completely stupid and invalidated his own explanation. What was he thinking?!

Thank you so much! I thought I was the only one who realized that or had a problem with it. The discrepancy still bugs me.

I have never believed that Bilbo wrote The Hobbit, in spite of what The Lord of the Rings says. It just doesn't feel right.

I would like to have a copy of the original Hobbit, but would ultimately prefer to have the revised version of The Hobbit and edit the Lord of the Rings to fit it. Controversial, I know! :-)