How do I get hooked on a book?
I think that is best described by Tolkien himself in his wonderful essay "On Fairy-stories"
Quote:
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What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful "subcreator". He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is "true": it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.
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And the LotR itself is the best example of a fantasybook that has the inner consistency of reality.