Hahahah!! Yes, Heliona, I was introduced to them at the age of eight!!

One of my fondest family memories is of Mom and Dad taking turns reading The Hobbit to us kids in the evenings or afternoon.... When we were finished with that book a neighbor learned of it, and lent us their LoTR. By the end of the trilogy we weren't just reading in the evenings... they read it aloud every spare minute as the tension strangled us toward the climax and finally the Battle at the Black Gates, and then the Fires of Mt. Doom...
I think that last part got read aloud on one day solid, totally consuming Dad's day off work.
Then the sad ending came and my mom and older sister cried through the Grey Havens and then the "seas of the bent world fell away, and a light shone like that of a white star" ... (If my memory serves me correctly)
And I think my destiny as a fantasy author was set in stone from that day forth.
Yes, I can't really wrap my head around how people must see them who first watched the movies... it is beyond my mortal abilities.
But Balin, Fili and Kili are particular favorites!!!

I still chuckle along with Balin "Crept along quietly and carefully, indeed. Crept along quietly and carefully, indeed!!!" as he begins to nap.
And Fili and Kili's lack of fire starting scene is probably their most memorable...
I do think the age at which one meets the books has a huge difference on how impactfully they impress you... we were talking with a new friend about the film adaptations of both Tolkien and Lewis's works, and he was very upset about the Narnia movies, and okay with the Tolkien ones; whereas I thought the Narnia films were fairly good, better than the books, and I was hotly indignant at PJ's treatment of the wonder that is LOTR & The Hobbit.
Turns out
he was a child-reader of Narnia, but came to the Tolkien books later in life, bu
WE had adopted Tolkien at an early age and not visited Narnia til our late teens.
Apparently the "magic hour" of childhood books was over, and so Narnia will never hold a candle to Middle Earth for me.
