I've never read LOTR before. The book has been extensively analyzed for decades. There are Tolkien scholars. The series has deeply impacted the fantasy genre. The quest. The wizard. The medieval setting.
So what do I want to remember?
That Tolkien meticulously planned this series. Probably taking as much time to plan as to write. The characters have genealogies that go back for centuries. There are are maps that lay out middle-earth in much detail. The detail is then carefully woven in to add color to the story. There is a difference between two characters arguing, and two characters arguing when they share the same grandfather, whose children couldn't get along.
There is *alot* of denouement in this book. After the ring is destroyed there are easily another 150 pages spent recovering, celebrating, tying up loose ends, saying good bye and rebuilding lives after they returned home.
