As about a 9 year old kid [a long time ago]. Baffled in places [e.g. why was Strider also called 'Aragorn'?], a little turned off by some of the songs and 'unexplained vistas', disliked some of the silly pomposity that started to creep in the further you got from Book I, but above all had my mind blown by Tolkien's imagination and the quality of [some of] his writing - really a great user of language.
Favorite Tolkien character:
On balance - Gandalf. Too many reasons to type up now.
