Tolkien was great in terms of the myth he produced, but his writing in and of itself is not that good. Jackson did a wonderful job of translating the story for the screen, making it more accessible to people who don't translate elvish for a living, and eliminated a lot of superfluous garbage, like Tom Bombadil. Also, the books had a tendency to drag, with the characters stopping to feast and sing songs every 25 pages or so on the way to try to stop the destruction of the world...it's like, let's get our priorities straight. Don't get me wrong, I do LOVE the books, but for me the movies are wonderful.