If J. R. R. Tolkien was as gifted an editor as he was a writer, I may have been able to finish reading The Lord of the Rings. As-is, the books are too frikkin’ bloated.
Preach, man. I stopped reading the books after I got to Tom Bombadil. The books are just way too long, with way too much boring unimportant stuff in them. I ended up watching the movies later, and really enjoyed them. They’re some of my favorite movies of all time. I guess I just don’t have the patience for Tolkien’s style of storytelling.