Read the Hobbit when I was 9 in 1968. After a few false starts. I finish LOTR when I was 13, 1972. I borrowed the books from one of my older brothers.
They were the 1965 First Edition Ballentine paperbacks. I still have them. My older brother to whom they belong. Started to get in to doing drugs, and never asked for them back. Funny thing is I never did drugs. But ended up being a D&D/Fantasy Nerd. I still have the 1st edition 3 booklet set of D&D. It took me along time to figure out how to play it and even longer to find someone to play it with. The first group of 3 guys and 1 girl, (Camile, may have been one of the first girls to play D&D. circa 1977?), that I played with had all read LOTR and Sword of Shannara, which had just came out. It was sweet opium to our High Fantasy starved souls. The easiest way I could come up with to explain how to play D&D. Was to help them make up a characters like there favorite Fellowship member and basically go through a modified Mines of Moria scenario. Which seemed to work like
Favorite Tolkien character:
I don't know if favorite is the term I would use. But the one I most identified with was Faramir. I like him, could not seem to please my Father. No matter what I tried to do.
