Okay, so here's the deal. I've never seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies, so I'm literally going into this series completely spoiler-free. I've recently picked up The Fellowship of the Ring, and I'm only like halfway through the first chapter, but I'm really enjoying it so far. What I'm wondering is, should I stop reading it and read The Hobbit first, or just keep going and read The Hobbit afterwards? I'm planning on reading both the LOTR series and The Hobbit regardless, I'm just not sure which order I should go in. Will reading LOTR first ruin the plot of The Hobbit for me, or will I be losing any significant information by not reading it first? If any LOTR fans could weigh in here, I'd greatly appreciate it
If you read the Hobbit you will get a few references and already know one or two characters but it's not needed to know what's going on.
The Hobbit doesn't contain any spoilers for the Lord of the Rings, and I don't remember Fellowship having any for Hobbit. Although, I recommend continuing reading Fellowship, just because I'm biased and I prefer the LotR series over the Hobbit book.
If you've started LOTR please continue! You will love every moment. I'm a big Tolkien fan, but The Hobbit can be tough going. As the others have said - it's very different in tone, almost to the point that it's contradictory in places. There's this presumption that all of the Middle Earth books are all part of the same 'lore', sure the characters are the same but Tolkien often changed his mind about things as time went on. I'd recommend that you keep going with LOTR. Lord of the Rings is pretty self contained and simply brilliant. It has a more mature style than the Hobbit, which has a more childish tone in places and lacks some of the depth (in my opinion). Lord of the Rings is definitive Tolkien. You can always go back and read the Hobbit afterwards, though I'd read it with the idea of reading what "inspired" Lord of the Rings, rather than go into it thinking of it as the first chapter - because it's really a separate entity. Edit: Oh, LOTR won't spoil too much of the Hobbit for you, only that some of the heroes survive. Although the events of the Hobbit are hinted at in the first few chapters, LOTR quickly develops into it's own tale.
The Hobbit is literally a children's bedtime story, and LOTR was his obsessive imagination going wild with the world he created. The Lord of the Tings is a very adult, mature story in comparison because it was not written for children as The Hobbit was, it was a more personal and creative endeavor, Tolkien was an uncontrollable genius with his writing and he never stopped embellishing on he history and lore of the place he dreamed. His son is still releasing notes and pieces of his father's work.
The order makes little difference. I'd usually suggest Hobbit first because it's much shorter so you can finish it before delving into the BIG story, but if you've already started Fellowship, don't worry about it.
