[The Only Real Estel]

The. movie. has. ruined. the. book.

I can't agree with that, I've been debated with before on that topic, but never shown any real reasons why the movie ruined the book. First of all, I enjoy the fact that the movies have drawn more people to Tolkein's LotR-even drawn more people to read his books. There are those, of course, that will try to start up a ridiculous argument about how Arwen is 'the spirit of the Ring' or how you can't be a fan of LotR if you don't know who Elijah Wood is, but there are also countless people who read the books because of the movies & are now bigger fans of Tolkien's writings then you or me! If people bring up bad arguments they've based on the movies, I just ask them which came first-the book or the movie?-and rest my case on that.

In fact, LOTR was turned into a money-making

It is a little over-marketed at times, but there wouldn't be an opportunity for over-marketing unless Tolkien made great books for PJ to make into his movies (& he largely stuck with the books, too). And of course they had to have the idea of getting back the 300 million they spent on the movies, it'd be ridiculous if they never thought of that.

*raises an eyebrow* Now that I think of it, I was only able to buy LOTR only becuase the movie made it famous enough to import it into Korea

Good things come of it after all .

The movies are not carbon-copies of the books, God-forbid that there ever be a LotR series out that is (much as half of me would like to see it)-the movies are great in their own right, the books in their's- and neither has ever caused the other any serious damage that I have ever heard of.
Point is, the movies can't ruin the books for you in any way, shape, or form...unless you let them.