Worth reading after watching the movies MANY YEARS ago?

Read the Silmarillion first

I have already read The Hobbit, that shouldn't be a problem.

Why should I read it before LOTR?

So you'll give up and hate the entire mythos. That user is a faggot intentionally trying to mislead you.

tru

They are very good books. It's the kind of classic that deserves it's status. It might be a bit of an acquired taste, a lot of people claim Tolkien was not really a good writer in a technical sense, which I don't really know if is true because I haven't read the books in years, plus I read them in my native language Norwegian. But even if he doesn't really write that "well" he writes in a way that is very enjoyable if it suits your sensibility, I've heard people complain that he spends too much time describing environments and scenery, but that is one of the things I enjoy the most about the books, it gives you a very clear and vivid image of the world. Plus Tolkien has perhaps the most believable fantasy universe created because there was so much going on with it in his mind and his notes that's not even in the book, he created an entire world in his mind and then wrote stories about it instead of doing it the other way around.
If you want to ease into it I suggest reading The Hobbit first, it's a really good book with the same basic ideas, but without the big scope or drama that LotR has.

>Children of Hurin
I literally had to put the book down and step away twice while reading TCoH it was so terribly tragic. I really don't understand what Tolkien wanted to convey with it, it's just profound misery start to finish.

I see. Well, I have already read The Hobbit, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm gonna read it in English, of course, no point in reading a translation in my native language when I can speak the original one well enough.

I intend to re-read it in English someday, I was pretty young when I read it in Norwegian and I know it wouldn't be a problem to read it now.

>tfw reading Tolkien again after years and realising it's full of allusions to old European literature and mythology

A good feel, although there's also the feel that his prose is not as good as you remembered.

The Song of Beren and Luthien in LOTR is so, sooo much fucking better than the version in Silmarillion.

it's fantasy written in almost biblical style

I admire the movies conveying the world's little details; Jackson and crew weren't fags back then and genuinely wanted to do right by Tolkien and fans of the story/ universe

they did some blunders in LotR but they were forgivable given how true the rest was, in The Hobbit though there was nothing but mistakes

The movies are much better.

...

It was never worth reading.

Tolkien was never a good writer. He was just an autistic translator obsessed with languages so he came up with the story as a vehicle to use his made up languages. It's boring as shit, too much crap about singing and Tom Bombadil and stupid shit that doesn't need to be there.

They need to make an abridged version that cuts out all the fluff and maybe I'll read it again.

I'm genuinely appalled user. Christopher is crying right now because of your lack of understanding and appreciation of his fathers work, despite his lifelong efforts to make his efforts well known.

>being this much of a pleb
Sad!

Read it. I'm going through it for the first time and I'm finding that it's much different than the films. Keeps the reading experience fresh and interesting.

The new Beren and Luthien book is quite nice, it tells the story as an unfinished fragment, a poem and as a sort of short synopsis along with how it relates to the first age.