I'm sort of between you and Josh on this one. The books are incredibly interesting, but I can't stand Tolkein's writing style. The books are all history and plot, with pretty poor character development and pacing.

I actually made it through the Silmarillion back in high school. It's an interesting read, but it's ridiculously dry. I've tried to reread it a few times (in fact, I started trying again a few days ago), but I haven't made it through again. It's basically a history textbook for Middle-Earth and it reads like one, not like a novel.