Shakespeare and Tolkien are similar to me. If you ever say you did not like them, you have an army of defenders calling you names about your lack of education and literary maturity, you always get attacked for who you must be as a person. Read both, not impressed.
You had me with you until your final two words. I'm not a fan of Lord of the Rings either, but I can't say I'm "not impressed." It's clearly a work of genius, though it doesn't appeal to me personally. And I'll defend anyone's right to dislike Shakespeare, but if you're not impressed, you're not paying attention.
I had the opposite reaction when I was that age, but there really is no comparison between The Hobbit and LOTR. The former is a children's book, the latter just the opposite. That doesn't mean any given reader will like LOTR, of course, or that they're wrongheaded if they don't. But readers who give up on Tolkien just because they disliked The Hobbit may find they've shortchanged themselves.
