Perhaps a more accurate answer, in my case, is to say that my perception of the books grows with me, both informing and being informed by my ongoing experiences. I could go off into a cloud of similes, but won't--let it suffice to imagine a bottomless spring, and the water has a slightly different flavor with each draught.
Because of this quality, in one sense each re-reading of the trilogy is like reading it for the first time, even though I "know how the story ends."
I had not re-read the books for some years at the time the first film was released. There were many moments of epiphany during that re-reading in 2002, but the most vivid occurred when I re-read "The Grey Havens," and was moved, literally, to tears, by Frodo and Sam's parting.
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"And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water."
-The Return of the King
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