How was your experience with reading LOTR through different times in your life?

After a long break, I read the books in this years spring and noticed how very different I perceived it.

I first read the books shortly after the first movie came out (2001) - I was completely captivated by it but also had the feeling that there is so much more to this world than the movie can show.
So i was about 15 when i read LOTR for the first time. I really liked all parts and felt privileged when i could give my friends an outlook to what we can expect in the following movies.

I also read the Silmarillion which was... a tiresome experience but i am glad I did it once to better understand the world of middleearth.

I read it twice during my 20s and noticed i did not like them as in the past. Tom Bombadil, The Souring of the Shire, all the poems and songs, the detailed description of the environment... made me tired and it felt like the add nothing and just draw out the story.

Christmas 2020 i watched after a long break the extended versions of the LOTR movies and i felt that the same hype and interest got sparked which i experienced at 15 - which led me to start MESBG

It was also the reason why I read the books again - now being 34. And wow... what a different experience it was.
-I was surprised how well the terror and fear of the unknown is written down for the part where the hobbits leave the shire and are pursued by the black riders.
-Having the poems and songs really added to bring me closer to Middleearth and its world. It gives the sense of a connection, like when you not only read about music/culture of another country but you also experience it.
-I was surprised how much the books center on the hobbits. It feels like it is their story and Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and even Gandalf are just side characters.
-Having more memory of the movies than the books, it also surprised me how short and casually even important battles like Helms Klamm and the Pelennor fields are described.
-For the same reason i was surprised that the fellowship was not the one big idea and effort of the free people but more a partnership of convenience. Aragorn and Boromir want to go to Minas Tirith to defend Gondor. Gimli and Legolas just want to go home. And even Gandalf only on short notice joined because he was not sure what the next best course of action would be. So everyone except for Merry and Pippin, only joined the fellowship because their routes matched to some degree. Which still baffles me - not only because there is no common cause on which they form friendships but also because it means Elrond etc really thought it is a good plan to send four hobbits to Mordor, without any of them being a fighter or having any kind of knowledge of lands.
-I also had throughout all the books the feeling that middleearth must be a very depressing and declining world. All countries and people they meet, talk about how their glory, culture and force declines and that everything was better in the past (the hobbits are the only exception interestingly).
--The high men of Numenor decline in power and numbers and lost all their kingdoms - even Aragorn is just a last exception and everyone following him will be lesser and lesser like their ancestor. Mixing with the Middle Men of middleearth
--The elves are for few exceptions, only a shadow in force and numbers. Telling everyone how the younger races are "lesser" in every sense (which especially after reading the Silmarillion seems hypocritical - the elves made a lot of errors)
--The dwarves have the lonely mountain but beside that are scattered and say that Khazad-Dum was the peak of their race and craftsmanship and most of it is lost and cannot reproduced.
--Gondor is described as declining - more interested in their past than their children
--etc

So I would be really interested how your experience was over time, reading LOTR. Did you have a similar experience?

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I've been reading and re-reading LotR fairly often for, well, a long time.

As a kid, I found Sam and Frodo's journey into Mordor pretty dull. Now, I really like the depiction of the psychological effects of the ring.

Knowing the story of Aragorn and Arwen adds some depth to the Rivendell chapters on a re-read. It's a flaw that their story is postponed until Appendix A, IMO. Weird storytelling choice on the part of JRRT.

Speaking of flaws, I know that Tom Bombadil is widely considered to be irritating, but I liked him then and still do. So some things change, some things don't.

I read LotR without having read The Hobbit first. There was enough introductory material that I didn't feel too lost ... but I remember being suspicious of Gandalf!

Yeah I definitely agree with the hobbits journey: In my twenties I read LOTR but completely skipped the Sam/Frodo parts of "The two towers" and "Return of the King". Now i appreciate how well they show the psychological effects and the hopelessness the two faced

Aragorn & Arwen: Also agree. Again that maybe stems from the heavy hobbit focus of the books.

Tom Bombadil: In my latest read, I also had no problem with him. But he, Goldberry and their background, place in the world... it feels out of place somehow. Like a real enigma that cannot be placed in any category compared to all the other characters/myths of middle-earth. He and her are no Maya, no elves or of any other race, no nature sprits... or at least its never clearly specified.
Actually it feels like a story branch that had much more room in an earlier version of the books but got dismissed but could not be completely removed and so we ended up with what we have.

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Tolkien wrote something to the effect that Tom Bombadil was meant to be a mystery.

He succeeded.

Been reading the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for quite awhile, but it seems I either pick up something new or read it in a new light each time.

When I first read them, I skipped the songs, they seem to bog down the flow for me. Big mistake, missed a lot that way.

I've read the books looking for scenario suggestions, I've read the books looking for different characters, I've read the books looking for terrain ideas, I've read the books focusing on a character's development, I've just read the appendices sometimes, and of course I've read the books for enjoyment.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."