How have you read it?

[Lalwendë]

I've never yet read LotR in any kind of 'unusual' order. I read it straight through the first time around, at the time I did jump back and look at bits over again, just to clarify the story, though I wouldn't call it re-reading as such. I also started with The Hobbit - as I was 'borrowing' the books, my brother told me that I couldn't read them at all if I didn't start with The Hobbit.

Nowadays I will have a complete read through now and then, though I've not done that in a while due to reading it through in any case, albeit slowly, for the CbC discussions. But I always go looking for something, just for a passage, and end up reading chunks I hadn't meant to read. Sometimes I can find myself a few chapters on and have to stop myself.

I've never had any urge to read it in the wrong order just to see if it is any different because I think "if it aint broke, why fix it?".

[Lalaith]

On various re-readings, I actually did the opposite of Arwen Imladris - I tended to skip Sam and Frodo's bits in TTT and RotK, concentrating instead on the rest of the Fellowship's adventures. I found the great trudge to Mordor, with smelly Gollum in tow, a bit depressing to be honest, compared with the more exciting and dashing adventures to be had in Rohan, Fangorn and Gondor....

[Elladan and Elrohir]

I read it straight through the first time, except for skimming parts of the Council of Elrond because it was (as I thought at the time) SOOO boring, and I wanted to get on with the action.

Now I read it from cover to cover, trying to miss a word of Tolkien's breathtaking description and straightforward narration. I've read it over ten times, and the more I read it, the less boring some portions get (such as Council of Elrond and Book Four).

[Thinlómien]

I've never done it, but I've planned to try to read LotR in a random order - just read a chapter I'd like to read at the moment and read the book like that. It would be nice to see what'll be the last chapter to remain... I wouldn't recommend that to novices, who're just getting hold on the story and the things between the lines and the whole book as a whole and complicated story, but after ten times or twenty times that kind of reading may make sense... So probably I'll do so when I reach the 20th time, which is a few normal times away...

[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

I usually read LOTR in order, starting from page one. I guess this is because I just never thought of reading it differently.

Sometimes, I use them as research, and go back to whatever point in the story that I need to find a quote or whatever else I am looking for.

Someone I talked to once had charted out a complex timeline that involved reading LOTR in chronological order, according to the events that happened in the story. I may do that on my next read-through, as it sounds very interesting. I don't know how far I'd actually get without getting so wrapped up in the flow of the story that I forget to flip to whatever chapter I'm supposed to read next.

On readthroughs, I never technically skip anything, but some parts I have found that I skim over in my rush to reach my favorite scenes. It's not that I don't read them, it's that I read them less carefully. It's one of the hazards of me knowing what comes next.

I'd never read LOTR in random order as has been suggested by some, for two reasons: I love the way the story flows, and that it would never be random order, because I'd open it to a place and forget that I'm supposed to be jumping around randomly, and just read straight through from that point.

I sort of wish that I could be reading it for the first time again, but I never try to forget the ending, or what happens next...Wish I could, but it isn't possible. I do get wrapped up in the story, but never to the extent tht I did when reading it for the first time.

[CaptainofDespair]

Well, my first time was the straight forward method. However, I found nearly all of the hobbit scenes to be boring, and I would skip them as I did my later readings. My next few times through, I would skip through to Helm's Deep in TTT, and then on to Aragorn/Gandalf in ROTK.

Now, I merely pick and choose those parts which I love. With the Hobbit, I tend to read anything dealing with Smaug, as he is my favorite character in that particular book. I tend to only read A Knife in the Dark, The Black Rider, Council of Elrond, and Amon Hen in the Fellowship. Though, sometimes I will read Gandalf's 'duel' with the Balrog. In Two Towers, I read the Three's hunt of the Uruk-hai, and Helm's Deep. With ROTK, I stick to the Siege of Minas Tirith, Pelennor, the tid-bit scene of Frodo and Sam seeing the Witch-King, and Aragorn/MoS at the Black Gate.

[Guinevere]

My first reading (which was not so long ago - only 4 years!) was of course in the normal order (first the Hobbit, then LotR, Appendices, Silmarillion.) I never felt an urge to skip anything (though I remember that I felt a bit exasperated in the Treebeard chapter). I am not a quick reader, I often reread the last bit , when taking the book up again after a pause.
My sons have the books in the German translation, and when my younger boy started reading them, I read together with him, all the time comparing with the original (because I was very disappointed by the translation!)
After having read the Silmarillion and Tom Shippey's excellent book (Author of the Century) I reread many parts of the books, because I understood many things much better now, but not from cover to cover.
Another reason to reread parts of the books were the movies: especially after TTT I reread all the parts that seemed "wrong" in the movie, eg the scene where Gandalf heals Theoden, all the Faramir chapters... the altered movie-characters made me love and appreciate the book-characters all the more.
Also, I had joined the BD and started to frequent the "quotable quotes" and ever since it is like Eruanna wrote:

This usually happens when I've read a certain section for research purposes, found what I want, and then found myself reading much further because I can't put the book down!

And now I started reading from the start again for the chapter-by-chapter discussion.