This is my favorite of the series. I find the other books in the series increasingly stiff and creaky. Things aren't so epic and grand in this book. FOTR is more like a camping trip, but with the added frisson of creeping dread from the Nazgul. Nothing can be scarier to me than Fatty Bolger sitting in Frodo's house, wondering if he saw he a shadow steal up the front path! And just for the record, I found Aragorn completely dreamy even *before* Vigo Mortensen was cast!