Just have to bump up some threads. The forum is dying.
I love this story because two simple Hobbits who seemed so fragile and small struggle up Mount Doom to defeat great evil.
Because the Ring of Power that tempts even the best and strongest and grows heavy and seeks to consume even the soul can be unmade.
Because Galadriel, Elrond and the other Elves choose to diminish and go into the West for the sake of Middle-earth.
Because even the Dead arise to conquer evil.
Because Faramir and Eowyn suffered so much loss and sacrifices only to find each other at the end and experience so much bliss for the rest of their lives.
Because an Ent's true name speaks the essence of who he is.
Because Tom Bombadil's house has become a place to mentally retreat.
Because two creatures from different races who have been enemies for ages became friends after all they've been through.
Because Merry and Pippin learned to be servants.
Because Strider was a wandering protector before he ever became Aragorn the warrior and king.
Because every character who seeks good over evil experiences a transformation of heart and mind and spirit because of his experiences and his comrades.
Because I am more courageous and forever changed for having known them.
Those above are kinda too literal though.
On a more serious note...
I love it because it's one of the few books where I can feel joy and sadness in the same scene and even in the same breath. Some of the finest moments in life are like that, but so very few writers seem to capture that sense of the bittersweet.
I love it because the characters seem so real and so believeable that I can not get them out of my mind or heart. Generally, when I shut the pages of a novel, even a piece of "great" literature, I may say, "That was good." or "That was not so good.", but I stop thinking about it in just a little while.
This is not the case here. I care so much about LotR that I even worry what happened to these characters after the book itself ends. I can not tell you how often I have thought and wondered about how Frodo might have changed and grown in the West. Did he ever find rest before going on beyond the circles of the world, or how lonely was he, especially after Bilbo chose to pass on? How hard it must have been to be a Hobbit when no others of your kind were there!
And what about Sam. How often did his missing friend creep in to his thoughts in what was otherwise a very fulfilled life? Did he ever wonder why he had been appointed to take one path in life, and his closest friend such a very different and separate one?
How long did Treebeard live without his beloved Entwife? And how did the last Ent feel as he came to the final sleep and knew that there would be no others of his kind behind him?
And I wonder exactly how Galadriel was received as she stepped off that ship. And how Arwen felt as she sat in the forest with no Elves and no humans about her and waited, alone, for death. I know I'm not the only one to take these things to heart, since Tolkien himself admitted in his Letters that he worried deeply about Galadriel returning to Elvenhome.
You know, part of me believes that, if I could understand the meaning in this book, I would do a lot better job sorting out the values and choices in my own life. I wish I had Aragorn's certainty about knowing that right does not change. Or I wish I could be like Treebeard, able to experience sadness but still not be unhappy. And, most of all, I need the commitment and gentleness that Frodo embodied, his ability to be obedient to the path he knew was right.
How many times have I wished that Tolkien had lived another 50 years so he could have told us more of what happened in this magical world. But that's the way life is. When you have a good thing, something that has meaning, you can't help but want more and more. Well, I am glad we have as much as we do!
And finally, I love Middle-earth so much because...Tolkien believed in his world, and he made me believe in it as well.
..just asking though. 
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