Yup.  I've been a fanatic since 1972 since my older sister gave me a copy of The Hobbit. I then franticly searched for The Fellowship of The Ring and was soooo hooked.  I read it almost cover to cover many times. Listening to contemporary music.. and I became sooo addicted to those songs, because they became interwoven with the mood of the story.

When I would re-read, I alway started with the chapter named Strider.  What a fantastic intoduction of a character!  Sean Astin said as much.  He didn't read the trilogy until he tried out for the part.. or was it when he was selected.

I'm a trilogy book die-hard. Movie or no it became a tremendous part of my life as a writer.

From my freshman year at highschool and all through college and the University of California..ALL of my term papers were part of the ripples of Professor Tolkien's unusual style.  If any course I could get an easy A and my paper read aloud..it was all due to the Professor.

I REALLY want to be an enthusiastic member here.  Ever so many sites disappeared within a few years of the last movie of the trilogy.  I'm grounded in the books. The movies were wonderful, but the books have soul.