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Fred, it's hard to assess whether you should read either of them or not, since I don't know you. The Hobbit has been termed as a children's story, while LoTR most certainly isn't. Do you prefer to keep the suspense of a story throughout to the end without knowing anything about it in advance? If so, then don't read them until after you've seen them, at least, until you've seen Fellowship of the Ring, then you can begin, I guess. On the other hand, if you're like those of us who like to read the last chapter of a book first :1devil: , then you should begin Fellowship first and get through it before the movie starts in Dec. Personally speaking, I've read the trilogy so many times that I've lost count, so the point was long moot with me. Sometimes on the Tolkien websites, those of us who have been around for awhile forget that there are people on those websites who don't like spoilers, so when we accidentally let slip secrets, we don't mean to. We're just so used to talking about it that we forget! You might read The Hobbit later as a reference, as well as The Silmarillion if you want to understand the origins of the Sindar and Sindarin (the Grey Elves' speech) and the Quenya (the Eldarin or High Elf speech forbidden by King Thingol), as well as background of the histories of elves, men, and dwarves.
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