For devoted Tolkien fans...

Lord of the Rings by a mile over the Silmarillion.

aapatsos wrote: ^ I believe that if you liked The Silmarillion, you will love the Children of Hurin. It is really an extended edition of the story in the Silmarillion but with many darker elements and great story-telling as well

It is? Well, that sounds really interesting. Thanks for the tip!

I voted Lord Of The Rings, which is still an amazing book. It's nice to see that a whole new generation discovers this story because of the Peter Jackson movies, though of course all should read the books as well, because many aspects of the book don't come forward in the movies, however good they are.

Some people before me have already pointed out that The Silmarillion is also worth while exploring, and I agree with them. It's a beautiful written mythology.

The Hobbit still is a great story to read. I agree with Mike's (Mr. Prog Freak's) reading sequence advice. The Hobbit is a nice starter and a good story as well, though not with the depth of the other two well known books.

I didn't read The Children Of Hurin thus far.

^ the dwarves in Tokien's mythology were created even before Elves but maybe that's the case for the hobbits, I don't know...

By the way, if any of you are big fans of the Silmarillion, The book of lost tales is a must have... very detailed storytelling of the beginning of the world!

Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are the must-reads for anyone, I prefer the latter, even if it's quite fragmented, this sometimes adds even something to the experience, more room for your imagination.
And i prefer reading about Valars and Elves over reading about hobbits.

Raff wrote: Garion81 wrote: Speaking of music for LOTR I think Howard Shore's sountrack to the movies is brilliant.  A couple years ago I bought Stacy (she is a bigger fan than I am and I am a pretty big fan) the complete soundtracks (the entire movie not just clips) for the three movies. It cost a bit but what an intense listening pleasure!   I have the soundtracks to the first two movies, but never bought the one to the third, because it didn't impress me in the same way. Actually, I thought the third movie was not as good as it could have been, unlike the first, which was almost perfect.

I haven't read them all, but I was very impressed by the Silmarillion.

I think I need to read LOTR again. I haven't read them in a long while. Plenty of time to do so now...

Methinks Mr. Spock might indulge in the pipe-weed.

Raff wrote: Negoba wrote: My family is so enmeshed in the Tolkien world that its mythology is our mythology. My father has read the books so many times it borders on obsession. The professor that spoke at my brother's graduation here in Saint Louis was a big Tolkien scholar. The work he's done simply will never be matched because the kind of scholarship he had in languages and mythology is rare enough, but to combine that with the obsession in a fantasy world....It just won't happen.   I personally can't separate the parts of the world and say "this is better" or "that is better" though clearly the LOTR was the most finished piece of work for adults. The Silmarillion is already a collection of lore, and other works are even more patchwork, though some of the stories still are great.   Anybody up for a round of "Where there's a whip there's a way" over a pint or two? You mean Tom Shippey, I suppose? I edited the Italian translation of his book The Road to Middle-earth, and had the opportunity to meet him in person in 2005, at the Birmingham convention organised on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of LotR. Edit: Alberto, Ungoliant is a she...