Tolkien blows. I'm sorry, he just does. Why does it take so freaking long to describe the most irrelevant things? I mean, I like the story in LoTR, it was just so long winded and wasn't and enjoyable read for me. I need to try out the Song of Fire and Ice (is that it?) series.
I'm a big fan of Tolkien, the thing about him is he was very consciously trying to create an enduring mythology