Thanks for excavating this thread
Beebs.
I don't know about changing or effecting my view on life (or anything beyond) but given that I ended up writing my Master's thesis on Tolkien and that I'm now trying to retool my entire existence so that I can be a writer rather than an academic it would seem that having read the works and admired the writer has guided me in ways I never would have expected when I first encountered Middle-earth at the ripe age of 11.