[Tirned Tinnu]

I can certainly understand many of the replies here. When I was young just trying to make it through LOTR was painstaking.
The "endless" descriptions of lands and fauna were not what I was looking for at that age. Neither did I understnd the need for explanations of routing or numbers of days travelled.

Now that I have read The Sil and The Unfinished Tales, and several other non-LOTR related works by Tolkien, and have a bit of a grasp on Nordic/Islandic sagas, as well as a few lessons in Irish Gaelic and many years of camping as both a Medievalist and English Civil War restorationalist, I know why he wrote the way he did.
I have come to understand the need for his explanations, his characters' modes of speech, and much of the history of Middle Earth.
I relish every word these days, recognising the fact that I am reading a man's life work. When I open The Red Book, it's Tolkien's soul that I hold in my hands, it's his heart that I read in the lines.
I am greatful to both Rankin-Bass for their creation of The Hobbit cartoon that got me interested, and to my hippy/yippy Uncle George, who gave me the LOTR trilogy for Christmas when I was very young. it has been a wonderful journey that I will cherish and honor for the rest of my days.