Back in the summer I was at a yard sale, and the lady was selling a thick volume of all three LOTR books for a dollar. I got it and didn't start reading it til late October and I just finished Return of the King this morning.
I really enjoyed it and I feel that even though the movie took some things out (like the battle for the Shire) they did a good job following the spirit of the story. It also reminded me the importance of a story being timeless vs being topical with a lot of messages specific to the time we are living in now.
I remember reading where Peter Jackson said that his goal was to present Tolkien's vision and not his own. I really wish the moronic showrunner for Wheel of Time had the same philosophy but he seems obsessed with lgbt representation amongst other things. I have reached a point now where whenever I hear that a new show is adapting a book series, I just buy the books. As a life long comic book reader, I am more than happy to stick with the comic books from decades past. I plan on buying the Witcher series sometime next year as well.
For what it's worth, I think GRRM started dragging his feet to stick it to the showrunners when they said that they were the reason it was so successful, and not the source material.