Clemens was boring. Got over LOTR in my ‘30s. Last 30 years or so it’s been history, current events, and STEM (for work), with a leaven of sci-fi for lubrication. Patrick O’Brien I liked well enough to keep them out of dead storage. William Gibson ditto. But generally fiction doesn’t do much for me. I relate better to reality.
I thought you were in to history.
Clemens is one of the best American writers, unless you have no sense of humor.
Probably never read any of the follow-ups by CJR Tolkien.
I have the entire hard-copy collection [24 volumes of his father's posthumously published work, including The Silmarillion and the 12-volume series The History of Middle-Earth - best is Unfinished Tales], I also include The Road Goes Ever On, the Donald Swann song cycle [that's worth a nice chunk of change!].
All the Frank Herbert novels, Heinlein's stuff, Roger Zelazny, Asimov's Foundation series, Clarke, Gabaldon for time travel and Scots history.