Sundry Tolkien thoughts, or My Tolkien Journey...
My first experience of Tolkien was semi-mythical in that my dad owned 60s copies of LOTR and The Hobbit and said I'd like them, or LOTR at least, "when I was older"; I was in primary school at the time and loved anything fantastical. I accepted this at the time and it meant that the book acquired an almost Necronomicon-esque weight for a decade or so before I read it in my teens. I saw the Bakshi animation when I was maybe 9 or 10 and absolutely loved it and repeatedly watched it, to the point where I could probably quote along with it if I watched it now, despite not having seen it for 20ish years. I was put off by the orcs being film negatives whilst the main characters were animated, if rotoscoped but put up with this as I loved it so much. I still remember it fondly and would probably enjoy it if I watched it again now, though it's messy and rough around the edges.
Soon after I was given A Tolkien Bestiary by David Day, which lists places and events as well as creatures and people, essentially an encyclopedia with many, may illustrations. I devoured this obsessively the way you do in childhood, around the same time I was doing the same thing with the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Guidebook and supplements.
Due to listening to my dad, I didn't read The Hobbit until I was 11-12 and loved it, though should have read it sooner (was reading "adult" non-fiction much younger) and would probably have loved it more then. Didn't eventually read LOTR until I was 17, spent many a happy hour sat in the shade at the bottom of the garden, next yo our rabbit pen reading it one summer. Despite being a little "old" for first read of LOTR I absolutely loved it, cried at the end (wimp) and was devastated when I thought Shelob had killed Frodo. It essentially marked the end of my childhood reading, at least of fiction - a few weeks later I saw a documentary on Wilde, then bought the complete works and read them obsessively and for several years became a Literary Snob who refused to read "mere" genre fiction.
I initially didn't reread LOTR due to wanting to "give it some breathing room" before returning, I decided it was an exception above my snobbery, I also wanted to immerse myself in literary "classics" and do some catch up. After some time the delay became due the increasingly nagging doubts that if I returned to LOTR I wouldn't love it as much as I had done. I was young and you change quickly then and I;d just greatly widened my reading horizons. I delayed my reread until after the final Jackson film came out and attempted it again in my mid-20s whilst actually travelling around NZ, which seemed like the perfect time.
It turns out my instincts where correct, I found the book fine but dull, poorly paced and simultaneously over and underwritten. Tolkien is fond of often stilted archaisms and is in my opinion a functional prose writer. I forced myself to get halfway and then admitted defeat, this was done with some sadness but I think it was the best decision, I decided I'd rather retain my happy memories of reading it the first time than tarnish them. At this remove I don't regret the decision, at the point I still have far more potent memories of the initial read than of the second one, of which I can only recall mild boredom and disappointment. I had similar experience, albeit more muted attempted to reread The Hobbit just prior to the first film and likewise gave up, though this time much more quickly.
I still have enormous affection for both books The Bestiary and the Bakshi and will certainly return to the latter two but probably never the former. I loved and still love Bakshi's use of the archaic dialogue from the books, which Jackson excised to a greater degree; even if I found it harder to (re)read. If Tolkien is your thing in any way I'm not attempting to shit on it and the LOTR in particular has that almost indefinable "X Factor" that many great works of art have, however flawed they may be. I attempted The Silmarillion in a flurry of post LOTR enthusiam and gace up after three pages, to date I've read more of Finnegans Wake, the observation that it is "an Elvish telephone directory" ring true for me, never attempted Lost Tales as a result, despite buying it.
I've gone on longer than I meant to so will leave out further observations and will comment (no doubt at length) on the Jackson films.