Speaking of sad moments, the first time I read the book I fell for all the plot twists when a character appeared to be dead: I thought Gandalf was dead, then I was sure that Frodo was dead, by the middle of ROTK I should have known better than to fall for these ambiguities, but I still took Pippin's farewell as a final one, because I remembered Elrond being against his going, and it seemed to me he had to be proven right one way or the other. But I also my mum, who read LOTR after I did, told me she cried her eyes out when she thought Pippin had died, while keeping dry eyes all through the Grey Havens scene.
But as for me, although I got glassy eyes at a few scenes (the one Squatter quoted above being one of them) I did not weep until I read the following:
Quote:
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1541: In this year, on March 1st came at last the Passing of King Elessar. It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king. Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.
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It was then that the bitter realization dawned on me: The book is over! I was like someone dreaming a beautiful dream and knowing that any moment now the alarm clock will ring. I swear, one of the most painful feelings I have ever experienced s coming to the end of a wonderful book. I know that you cannot really appreciate it for all that it is until you've finished it, and at a second/ third reading you discover new things and cherish the already known ones, but it cannot be compared with the feeling of amazed almost unconscious novelty when one is absorbed for the first time in a book. That 'being caught up in the heat of the events' feeling is rarely experienced a second time. It's sort of like the distinction Sartre made between living an event and recounting (re-telling) an event.
If this is slightly off topic, sorry. If not, I'd be interested how many of you share this view.