I'm lucky that I read TTT and RotK before I saw those two films, so at least the plot wasn't entirely spoiled for me. But there's always those bits in the books not in the movies to make up for the spoilers that are
I think had I have read the books first, I would have re-read them by now, and had a deeper understanding of the plot lines and characters, and maybe even have researched all of that extra ME info in Tolkien's other books. But as it is, I haven't. I blame the movies, not my lazyness! But i've always felt book-first Downers have an advantage when it comes to discussing the more complex aspects of Tolkien's works.
*~Tarser~* [can't think of an animal noise right now...]