I do not have the slightest clue how often I have read this trilogy, certainly dozens of times in my adolescence alone.
It's amazing how much is woven into the story. I recognize it better now that I have read so much else of his world, to catch the allusions that slid by me so easily (and yet so smoothly) when I did not know them -- and Frodo's dreams, and so much else. Not to mention the point of view. I point out the book for an example of how to handle multiple points of view, where you never have a new one without his having first appeared to a point-of-view character.
Except, of course, Bilbo. The narrator starts out omniscient, and lays out his story with immense authority before his party and his encounters with Gandalf, and how the Ring finds its way to Frodo. It's when Gandalf reveals more to Frodo -- that the Ring is really bad magic -- that the story starts to pick up. His story getting out of the Shire with his friends is a bit meandering (though I found it more connected than The Hobbit's opening chapters), but as they come to Elrond's house, the story picks up.
And the rest of the tale forges onward, with a sudden snow storm, ghosts under a curse, more magical rings, promises, treachery, a war, a secret pass with guardians, and a stew of rabbit, among other things.