[Child of the 7th Age]

I would definitely be a different person. Partially,that's because I first read the Hobbit and the LOTR almost forty years ago. Back then, there were very few solid fantasy writers--because of Tolkien, all that has changed. People are willing to take fantasy more seriously than they did back in those ancient days. I ended up going and earning a doctorate in medieval history not because I read Tolkien, but because I dicovered that the same wonderful things that made me attracted to Tolkien and to chasing after Hobbits also made me want to go to the Shires of England and dig furiously through the local record offices to learn more about how people lived in a pre-technological society.

So yes, the Lord of the Rings (and also White's books on King Arthur) helped me learn more about myself and what I really wanted from life--instead of just following along with what everyone else thought they wanted for me--and I am very grateful for that. Almost 40 years later and I'm still chasing hobbits!