I read the whole thread, but almost passed on replying...
...because I think that LotR had a deep effect on me, highly personal. But like one other person has posted, I think I recognized in the book a morality and an idealism that was already formed in me but longed for expression intellectually. That was satisfied upon reading, and confirmed upon various rereadings. I think that the book did have a strong positive effect on me.
I think the source of my preexisting worldview was the Bible, which I read quite a bit as a child, frequently on my own, not related to church or family requirements or expectations. I credit the Holy Spirit with speaking to me (to my spirit--no audible voices) often when I read the Bible, especially when meditating on it.
I read LotR first probably in about 8th grade (say at 13-14 years old). It was also a time of considerable Bible reading for me.
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For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying. -Gandalf, The Two Towers
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