Growing up in suburban Chicago, I learned to read at an early age. My social skills were horrible and I was in the "gifted" program, so school was horrible. I took to reading very early to escape my reality. I read the Narnia series by 7 and Lord of the Rings by 11. I loved Fantasy and then SciFi as it fed my imagination. So I read Asimov, AC Clarke, Bradbury, Poe, Philip K. Dick and others, but I returned to Tolkien again and again.
I always wondered what would have happened if he had lived longer and continued to tell the stories from his world. Fast forward 30 years a more...