I just barely remember listening to this record as a young child on one of those children's briefcase style record players. I still have my original one, although at some point I actually bought another off eBay because the original one has a scratch.
Cool ass record!!
I got the hobbit in middle school maybe. Back then I was my mothers sweet little boy. It was a concerted effort to read it together at night. I think it was from my school's library iirc. Hard back, green with black lettering maybe.
I can vividly remember the feeling of my room and my mothers voice.
What really got me going was the movies though probably. I watched it with a good friend of mine, around the time his father had passed. He did not have an easy go of things after that and we drifted apart.
My s.o. and I bonded initially over our love of tolkein, as well as sharing the same favorite author of more non fantasy writing. We occasionally nerd out together on it to this day.
I went with friends on a birthday party to see the second PJ movie in cinema. Then I watched the first movie on video and went to the cinema to watch the second movie again. Next school holidays I read all the books and waited impatiently for the third movie.