I was 8. I don't remember much. I'd listened to the BBC adaptation first, and read (and listened to) The Hobbit before that. I bought the Grafton 1991 editions. I lost Two Towers (I left it at school one day) and had to buy another copy. I wrote all the events from 'The Great Years' in the Appendix B timeline in the corresponding dates in my diary. I was hooked.