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Originally Posted by William Cloud Hickli
We can't however ignore the effect the movies have had on at least some readers, presumably of the younger sort.
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I'm not sure whether this effect is so serious. I mean, let's be honest, even before the movies, there have been people who read the books but didn't like them or didn't even make it through, haven't there?
The difference is that now there is a second "entry" to Middle-earth. Before, if one wanted the LotR, one had to read - and had no choice. It didn't matter whether one found Tolkien's style to be boring or slow or whatever. If one liked the story by itself, one needed to read it. Now there's a second approach: easier and more suitable for today's mass culture (keep in mind, this would have been the case, too, if the movies were more faithful to the original). Now one can enjoy the story without having to bother with reading it. Now one can not like the books but still enjoy its story.
Though this is surely sad to lose many readers, I think the question is: are these people really a loss to the LotR readership? I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I don't really think so. Without the movies, they probably simply wouldn't be here at all to contribute their opinions on Tolkien (and Jackson). I would claim that their loss is quite compensated by the gain of people who wouldn't have picked up the books without the movies, and the people whose interest in them has been re-sparked because of them.