Final thoughts

Characters
Everyone has a great characters. From the fellowship down to the two bit one off characters, no on feels like Guard A. I especially like the focus given to the hobbits, they really do have the most growth of anyone, and their return to the shire gets to highlight that, from Frodo's mercy to Merry and Pippin, Halfling Warriors. As a counterpoint, Legolas gets lots of love in the movies, but in the books everyone else outshines him. Perhaps it is his elven approach of stillness through time, but compared to Gimli and Aragorn and Boromir, he changes little save for his friendship with Gimli. Gimli by contrast goes through massive changes and growth, and really shines as the author's favored character (Three Hairs!)

Pacing:
This is my main fault with the books. As you can see from the chart:

The council of Elrond is a terrible chapter. It kills so many bookclubs, ours nearly perished. So much forward momentum in the story is lost ,and so much backstory is explained that the chapter drives many off the effort of continuing to read.
In addition, much of the first book's pacing drags on and on, and it takes a while for the pace to step up, only to run face first into the Mt Doom of the Council of Elrond. Afterwards the pacing improves, especially at the Bridge of Khazad-Dum and through Lothlorien. It doesn't feel overlong, and we get appropriate time there to come down from Gandalf's apparent death. The Two towers moves at a great clip, but it stutters between steps. Backtracking, first between the tall folk and the hobbits, and then between Frodo and Sam and everyone else is a huge lurch, and our graph shows significant engagement drops there. Return of the King fixes the backtracking, and moves very well through its pacing. I especially like the almost jaunty pacing of the Shire.

Story:
Its a great hero's journey story, and its a classic for a reason. Its focus on the themes of despair and hope and bravery are timeless, and it demonstrates its excellence in those fields. By our current standards it seems a little simple, but its more positive themes of High Fantasy persist.

Setting and Worldbuilding
Discussing Tolkien's worldbuilding is akin to a masterclass by Michelangelo. You sit down, shut up, and take copious notes. I will be referencing my notes for a while going forward in my own writing. He had so many great methods.

Overall:
Its a great book. The return on time investment is definitely worth it, and it is a book perfect for tweens and older. But its pacing is so difficult to get going that it will likely lose a great deal of its readers before they finally get to the good part. I would peg the good stop point to be Lothlorien. If after Lothlorien you want to stop, then you probably won't get much more out of it. But I contrast that with most books that have hooked you within the first few chapters or even pages.

I don't anticipate reading it again in its entirety, but now that I have these chapter by chapter breakdowns, I'll go back and reference specific areas.

Now, we must thank our own fellowship.
@TheWiseTomato Thank you for starting this.
@Nazgoose You stuck it through to the end, I don't know if I could have kept going without you.

@Irene @Otters @lopeck @dudeler @draykfyre @Kobolum @Paladin , I leave you with the words of Elrond:
"You may tarry, or come back, or turn aside into other paths, as chance allows."
Good work trying to tackle this monster.