But language and history and all that stuff was a big part of Tolkien's world. I'll be the first to admit that it's not as exciting a read from an action adventure standpoint as most fantasy series are now, but I loved these books. In the end, the three books plus the hobbit is pretty much equivalent to not even two books by say Martin or Goodkind. It's not actually a big investment of time to read LOTR. I read the whole triology just after high school in about a month and it wraps up reasonably well after book three to boot.
My confession today is that I'm thinking of devoting an entire year of reading to re-reading. I think it's a completely batty idea and not sure I'll be able to do it, but I think I've almost got enough stuff I'm thinking about to make a go of it.