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I think its almost impossible to really critique Tolkein, at least for those of us of a certain (ahem) age who read it at 9. Because then it WAS the major introduction into fantasy. Almost every fantasy book I've read since then (Martin, Abercrombie, even Rowling) was built upon the foundation of Tolkein to some degree. But if you were reading LOTR at 9 then it will always have the special glow of being the first and most special, and I don't know if you ever get old enough to look back and see it through anything other than that lens.

You were lucky your parents bought you the box set of LOTR after you read the Hobbit. I read the Hobbit in 4th grade and would not read the LOTR until I was in 11th grade. It took me 7 years to discover that Tolkien had continued the saga of Middle Earth. If only the Internet had existed back then.

I once had a roomate in a college level creative writing class and I asked him if fantasy was allowed.

He told me that it wasn't because the professor said that all fanatasy works were, "Just bad Tolkien."

I bring this up because has any other author so dominated his field of literature as much as Tolkien? There are many authors in the fantasy genre, but no on stands above his peers the way Tolkien still stands above his.

And I think this hurts fantasy overall.

Tolkien's opus is like Mount Rushmore. You can build another multi-faced mountain memorial with better known and more popular faces, but you'll always think "it's not Mount Rushmore."

I do think that part of the genius is that, at no point, do we read about the Ring being used to its full potential. In fact, the only reason we know it's so powerful is because people crave it or turn from it and they all keep talking about how powerful it is. Think about it. Thousands of pages and you never hear of someone putting the Ring on and blasting some army away -- yet we all know that this is a possibility.

"He told me that it wasn't because the professor said that all fanatasy works were, "Just bad Tolkien.""

One wonders how he can comprehend pre-Tolkien fantasy...

Ah, Tolkien. I owe you so much. If I hadn't read LOTR when I was 17 because there was a movie coming out (yeah, I'm one of those people) I never would have become obsessed by the universe Tolkien created, and I never would have gone online into a Tolkien chatroom (ooh, yeah, I was SO COOL in High School) and never would have met my friend Mia, who introduced me to another chatroom where I met MrFig, and I wouldn't have become an online freak and never would have discovered GoFugYourself, where I discovered Pajiba and I wouldn't be here writing this comment.

Yeah, I owe a lot to Professor Tolkien. Rock on, JRR.

I've reread the Lord of the Rings at least once every year for 33 years now. I own all the History of Middle-earth books which describe how Professor Tolkien kept changing his mind as the stories and setting evolved. I even have a book on the languages of Middle-earth. My personal library is several thousand books but Tolkien's are my most treasured. I think that more or less sums up my feelings on the subject. ;)

My mom, actually, was the one who first got me in to Lord of the Rings. The first time I tried to read them, I got bored right before the Mines of Moria, and didn't go back for a few years. But the second time around, I fell in love. Tolkien influenced my reading habits A LOT - he guided me to my love of world-building (see: my teenage obsession with Anne McCaffrey, whose main appeal for me was how AWESOME Pern was, and how much I wanted to go there) and language (see: my favorite novel of all time, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is like reading poetry, except it's prose.)

I can't credit Tolkien with my love of fantasy (I owe that to the Paperbag Princess, my older brother's brief stint playing D&D, and Dragonlance,) but I can credit him with my respect for fantasy as legitimate literature. Without Tolkien, I'd still be reading fantasy, but I might not be analyzing it, recommending it, and respecting it the way I do now.

And Zeke, I give you a barrage of recommendations. There's always the Song of Ice and Fire series, which you have undoubtedly heard about here (see: 8000 posts about the Game of Thrones series and the trailers, every one of which I have read and viewed multiple times.) I hate using this term, but it's more "gritty" fantasy, and certainly has more realism in its violence and characterization than a lot of fantasy, and it can get pretty damn depressing. But it's also exciting, full of political intrigue, and super awesome. And long. I'm also big into urban fantasy these days, which often fall a little more on the light and fluffy side, but are still fun. I like Charlaine Harris (wrote the novels that True Blood is based off of) and Patricia Briggs a lot, and Robin McKinley has one fantastic adult urban fantasy novel called Sunshine. I'm also a big fan of a lot of YA fantasy, which I think is highly underrated. I recommend anything by Robin McKinley, and if you're more into the sci-fi end of things, the Hunger Games trilogy is fantastic.

Zeke, I'd recommend anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, in particular the Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy. I found the first part of the first book almost convinced me to stop (it's a weird premise at first), but I know consider the trilogy my favorite book(s).

i may have mentioned this before on some other thread years ago but i think john crowley's little, big is right up there with tolkien. well, okay, nothing can really match the density of tolkien. however, little, big is simply amazing and...wait for it...it's only a single volume. if you like fantasy and have not read this you are really missing out. you'll be shocked to know it's been around for over 25 years and you didn't know about it. do yourself a favor and just read it.

i second the love for the fionavar tapestry and for the story of beren and luthien in the silmarillion. the former is really good and the the latter is, of course, tolkien and therefore excellent.

@figgy: you ever heard of crowley or read any of his stuff? jw

So much of my memories of Lord of the Rings is wrapped up is the physical delight of actually owning the books. I was in 6th grade. I had read The Hobbit after seeing it in the dining room one night while I was stuck at the table until I ate my lima beans. Never ate the beans but got half-way through before Mom sent me to bed. Once I knew there were three more, I returned bottles, ran errands, swiped some pocket change out of my Dad's pants - anything I could do to get the money together. It took months.

When I finally had the correct amount, I took the money to my mother with the order blank from the back of The Hobbit filled out and asked her to write a check for me. She refused. I was crushed, but then realized that Dad could write checks as well, and he loved to read, so he'd probably do it for me. Fortunately, Mom was out later that evening, and Dad gladly signed away.

I waited for six weeks - by then Mom had discovered the check had been written, and was convinced I'd never see the books. She didn't think they were appropriate anyway, so she would give me this "I told you so" look every time I ran in the door only to find no box waiting for me.

Until the day this huge envelope came for me - thick, padded - and I was almost in tears. I remember tearing the envelope open. It was full of the gray shredded stuffing which spilled out all over the carpet. And there were three books individually wrapped in brown paper.

And as I pulled the wrappings off, I could smell the fresh ink, and I remember racing up to my reading nook (the back corner of a huge walk-in closet in my room, fully equipped with pillows and a lamp), and reading the first page...

It was the first and only time in my life I played hooky, and I read all three of them straight through. I had ink all over my hands, and I kept trying to slow down, because I didn't want them to end.

They were the first books I ever bought with (mostly) my own money. And I loved every page of them.

I came late to the Master. The first reference was a cover note from Arthur Clarke comparing Herbert's Dune to LOTR--when I was 13. Didn't start reading it till I took a class on him & pal Lewis at around age 20. Didn't finish the trilogy for a year, & then I was given a copy of The Hobbit. (No doubt I shall ever rue this disorder). Over three decades later Tolkien's appeal remains, but I'll admit to insufficient familiarity with the "competition."