[Balin999]

I first read about Tolkien in an article about satanism (back then, I was 14, *shiver*).
It was all about some crazy guy (he called his music project "Burzum" and himself "Grishnakh") who was burning churches in Scandinavia and who actually killed another Black Metal-guy.
So at first I thought LOTR had something to do with Satanism and didn't really want to read it.
Some months later I found out that my parents were given it at their marriage. Since we had no one in the family whom I suspected to be into satanism, I decided to read the book, since I always enjoyed reading and wasn't scared of the many pages.
I can remember that I re-read the book twice since I didn't want the story to end. Then I read The Hobbit and The Silm.
Then I joined the Barrow Downs and finally got to know at least a few people (The BD only had 5 members at that time) who shared my enthusiasm for anything connected with Tolkien. In real life, people thought I was a freak. That was, until the movies came out (tah!).