And lets compare things like this with some of the other "greats" of literature. Namely, Jules Verne and 20k Leagues Under the Sea. Pages upon pages are used in almost literal fact-listing of the surrounding area, without anywhere near the prose of Tolkien. A large amount of the book reads like a biologists travel journal. I quite enjoy Verne's works, but holy cow can they be dry at times.

I've got a fair number of authors I like considerably better than Tolkien, but he's quite good right now, and surprisingly more enjoyable and approachable than many authors from the same time period.