I started to read FOTR, but it wasn't about Bilbo instead it was about this guy named Frodo so I got bored and stopped reading it. I think maybe I was in my early teens. This surprises me to this day, since I was (and am) quite the book-worm and I love the LOTR now (I read it many times before the movies came out).
Favorite Tolkien character:
Gandalf, who could have stayed out of the whole business and enjoyed hanging with the Valar, but went ahead and risked his neck fighting one of his fellow Maia for us puny Men and Hobitssessss.