I had to choose "read" because I haven't listened to a full unabridged book-on-tape version.
Reading has a lot of different benefits to it, the chief of which is the ability of the reader to skip around. Since I don't have the time I used to I haven't done a full readthrough in about three years now, so being able to look at some favorite scenes again has to suffice when I need a quick canon fix.
One option that I wish you would have put up there (since you included "watch the movies") was "Listen to the BBC Radio adaptation". Since it's a mere 13 hours but it still contains all the Tolkieny goodness a lass like me could ask for it's a good cheap substitute for a full readthrough.
So if that option were up I'd have to put it slightly ahead of "read": not because it's necessarily better, but because that's what I have time for at the moment.
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