I have to respectfully disagree. The books are not poorly written!!
The pacing is slow (excrutiatingly at times) but we are a different generation than what it was written for. Books didn\'t necessarily have to flow from plot point to plot point to be entertaining.
Modern storytelling is much more polished and slicker, but it doesn\'t mean stories not told in that fashion are poor ones!
I agree it may show its age, but it is NOT badly written. I have always loved Tolkiens meandering, because I felt like I was a denizen of the world he created...not just someone peeking in to see what was happening. I loved the over detail of things, what they were eating, etc. because I felt totally immersed.
That doesn\'t translate well to film, or to the video game generation, where clear concise outlines are needed.
I\'m not just a Tolkien \'fanboy\' either. The Silmarillion for instance,is almost completly unreadable at times.
However, I have always thought of the books v. the films as two seperate entities. I can enjoy both differently and not feel let down. There are concessions that a filmmaker had to make, not only to keep it interesting, but to keep it within a watchable length. The films capture the spirit of Middle Earth far better than I had hoped for.
Sure things could have been done better, but they could also have been done much worse.
My point in this is that you are certainly entitled to your opinion that the books are overwrought, but I\'ll argue that that is what makes them classics in my eyes.