A weird personal thing is I liked both The Hobbit and The Silmarillion more than LotR. Hobbit is unashamedly a children’s story, it’s not trying to be epic but Silmarillion is straight up HUGE mythology. I feel like they play more to JRRT’s strengths (academic but also a kind parent). I also feel like Hobbit better communicates that good people can set up terrible things, rather than absolute monsters, a flip side to how anyone can be a hero.