Had to, just had to, after seeing the recent film. It's difficult to read in some ways, I mean, you have the stories of the other members of the Fellowship more or less intertwined, Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas going to Helm's Deep, and Merry and Pippin with the Ents, that's all told in parallel. And then, when their half of the book is OVER, you get Frodo and Sam's half. Chopped right down the middle, and that pattern persists into Return of the King.
There aren't many books that do that successfully, because it's such a derailing break for the reader, and I'm not sure that Tolkien does it successfully, viewed strictly from the book-report perspective. It's offputting but by GOD, there's no way I'm putting the book(s) down and walking away. HELL, no.
A MUST MUST read.
