I must also agree that the LotR movies are better than the books. The books are often very, very, very boring. I completely agree with fiery that the world and story Tolkien created was fantastically rich, but that his pacing and writing style just wears you down (and by "writing style," I mean more than just diction and individual sentences).

However, I do not mean to rag on Tolkien's contribution to fiction. As a fantasy book buff myself, I will readily concede that Tolkien basically invented the genre as we know it today. Even if I don't think the books measure up individually against some other fantasy greats, Tolkien is still richly deserving of most of the credit he is given.