JRR Tolkien was my first major literary crush. Watership Down was a first love and paved the way for 17 years as a vegetarian and refusal to ever eat rabbit but reading The Lord of the Rings in my teens began a long-lasting love of epic fantasy. I read and reread it many times in my teens and 20s and owned pretty much every published book by or about Tolkien until his estate began churning out unpublished, and unfinished works.