I have to admit to taking wicked delight in wilfully pronouncing the names as I see fit. The world is full of pedants these days and I'd rather come down on the side of pleasure than that of being smugly correct.
Mispronouncing the names in a book is hardly crime of the century anyway, and I think we only force ourselves to do it to 'fit in', it's a completely different thing to making the effort in learning how to pronounce a real person's difficult name (says she, feeling proud at having learnt some Polish and Kenyan names today
). Davem is correct that forcing yourself to read a certain name in a book in a prescribed way, especially one as long as Lord of the Rings, can somewhat spoil your reading experience.
And yes, I pronounce it "tol-kin"
