"Pipe weed"? No wonder he was so popular in the 1960's.
My first exposure to The Hobbit came when I was very young and it was assigned reading in the 6th Grade. I read The Fellowship of the Ring shortly thereafter, but wasn't mentally prepared to understand it just then; I couldn't maintain the momentum and abandoned The Two Towers very early on.
Years later, when the films were in development I decided I needed to read them before then-largely-untested filmmaker and schlockmaster Peter Jackson committed them to film; I finally read the whole thing back-to-back-to-back in 1995. I've read the whole thing again a couple of times since then, as well as The Atlas of Middle Earth and some of the supporting books put out by Christopher Tolkien in more recent years that serve as a kind of "making of" guide. I've also read all the supporting books behind the films: The Art of..., the Making of..., etc. I thought the book on Weapons and Warfare was particularly brilliant, giving insight to the practical whys and wherefores of some of the finer details of the visual medium.
I don't want to over expose it (neither the books nor the films) by reading it or seeing it too many times like I've done with most of my childhood films. However, I have read the second chapter of Fellowship about a jillion times. It is an info dump of epic proportions, and I love it to death. It is pure genius the way they broke it up in the films between the aftermath of Bilbo's party, the Mines of Moria, and the beginning of The Return of the King.
The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin remain on my shelf. I may read either of them this year, but I kind of doubt it. Maybe though.
Still my favorite book of all time. Visiting a few of the Tolkien sites in Oxford was a real travel highlight for me.
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