I first read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy in 2001. My literature class was focusing on The Hobbit. Somehow none of us had ever actually read any of Tolkien's works prior to that. By the time FotR released that December, most of us had read both the Hobbit and the entire trilogy and were well on the way to complete obsession. We dressed as hobbits and elves at Halloween, planned parties around the release dates, and made every single conversation lead back to LotR. It was a wonderful time. Many of us retain that same fervor. I, for one, read the trilogy at least once every one or two years and, on a couple of occasions, watched the entire trilogy beginning to end in a single session. I am currently re-reading the entire saga, from the histories to the trilogy.