I didn't really enjoy the first two thirds, it was tediously slow and repetitive, up a slope down a slope rinse and repeat, and for all that you didn't even get to know much of the character of the hobbits (or anyone else). There's also innumerable new names of places and people, multiplied severaltimes over by the fact they're called something else in other languages, so that was a lot to deal with - like reading genealoies in the bible. I did enjoy the last third, things started to move quicker and there were more changes of scene and characters started to have personality.