This was my introduction to Tolkien, sometime in primary school. Wandering about the library, one of the student-librarians suggested I try this. I'm not sure I made it past the first paragraph. I know I didn't make it past the first page. To this day, I still rather dislike the Hobbit. 
 I've read this book a few times and, like most things, familiarity is tending to make it more and more preferred. It's well-written, a good story, lots of fun and interesting. I'm a rereader. Thankfully I read fast enough that I can reread many books as well as reading many new books. I reread LotR once a year. I reread a fair amount of other favourites every year. Sometimes more often. This book, however, I reread about once every five years. For some reason I just don't enjoy it that much. There's no good reason for it, it's just one of those quirks. I suspect that at least part of my dislike stems from the fact that the narrative is weighted heavily towards the dwarves and Bilbo - the anthropologist in me wants more variety to study. 
 It's still a book to be recommended. It's just not one I particularly enjoy most of the time.