I'm glad the Tom Bombadil and the Old Forest were apparently entirely removed, they've always been my least favorite part of the books, and not much happened to further the story really, in my opinion (except the swords that the hobbits recieved, but I'm sure they could have found them elsewhere in the story). Tom was a somewhat interesting character, but I'm certainly glad I didn't have to sit through an extra 5 or 10 minutes of film for the story to pick up.
For that matter, Frodo's entire journey to Rivendell was a lot swifter and nerve wracking to a film audience; somehow Frodo waiting 17 years before leaving, and moving slowly across the Shire being slowly haunted by the Nazgul wouldn't have worked in a film.
I'm not one to generally complain at Peter Jackson's effort at the story, what people seem to forget is that he put many hours worth of reading into a 3 hour film, and so changes were necessary. I try to keep the film and books as seperate art pieces, and I think they were both well done (the books, however, remaining significantly better
).