"just a book" or "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere " ?

[Sauron 666]

I love Tolkein's works for its deep richness of imagination. You can see all the effort that Tolkein put into it by the details. It isn't so much the m ain plot that attracts me as much as all the background information, the little comments here and there, that give it so much authenticity. The Silmarillino, The Hobbit and LOTR are among the most imginative works of fiction ever created by a human mind. I think he is one of the masters of 20th century fiction along with Joyce and Hemmingway. The only author who comes close to Tolkein in my mind is H.P. Lovecraft whom i heavily recommend and i believe anyone who enjoys Tolkein would enjoy Lovecraft. To me, Tolkein's works are more than just books that you read once and forget what they were about a week later (Tom Clancy for example, is difficult to remember what the plot is even in the middle of one of his books LOL), the vivid details, the beautiful stories, they are true works of art right up there with Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Picasso, Shakespeare, Moliere, Homer, Joyce, etc, etc.