I will confess that I decided to read all 3 volumes of LotR to celebrate finishing my O-Levels when I had access to, shall we say, substances that might keep me awake for a couple of days and I did it. Not big or clever in retrospect of course.
Re-read it many times since, while the Peter...
Silmarillion is basically a Middle Earth Text Book... As you say theres lots more action in LotR.
The Two Towers is my favourite because of all the battles plus the Ents, I suppose this makes me rather shallow. :p
Back onto the original question, I can't bear Dickens, never managed to get...