If you thought the movies were long boring and drawn out, try to read the books. I love that kind of stuff. I wasn't a DnD nerd, I grew up in the sticks and they didn't know what dnd was, but I love RPG video games and fantasy novels. But I could barely make it through LOTR.
LOVED the books (sorry). At one point, I was able to read the Elvish runes without translation. The depth and detail of the history of all the people and races in Middle Earth were endlessly fascinating.
I've lost count how many times I've read them, and every time I did I discovered something new. Last time I read it was before the first of Jackson's movies came out.
The only character I really missed from the books was Tom Bombadil. In the long run, he didn't really add much to the tale but he was a fun character. The one thing he DID do for the hobbits was present them with their swords... but that part was passed on to Aragorn in the movie.
Bored of the Rings was required reading at my Grammar School. ( We had a hippy Eng Lit teacher,though!) Tolkein's books are better than the films. However,the films do do the books justice which is often not the case with other classic books.
Round about junior high school time-frame I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tolkein's LOTR series and The Hobbit while listening to Rush. Rush seems like the perfect sound track for Tolkein's stories.
No. People have tried tacking all sorts of messages and metaphors onto LOTR for years. When asked, Tolkien said it was "just a good story."
I have loved the books since I was a little kid, but the movies actually did pretty well.
If you want to read something a little faster-paced and lighthearted read The Belgariad by Eddings.
If you want to be truly bored- read the Silmarillion by Tolkien. Set in Middlearth like LOTR, but way more dry. It's like a history book full of things that never happened.}