The fellowship is broken into three parts: Frodo has gone with Sam to Mordor in hopes of destroying the ring, Pippin and Merry have been kidnapped by Orcs and are being taken to Isengard, and Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn are trying to find and rescue Merry and Pippin. 
 As in Fellowship, the book is divided into two parts. In the first, we follow Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, Merry, and Pippin, while the second part shows us Frodo and Sam. If I remember correctly, the movie mixes up the two narratives, and I've spent some time thinking over which I like better. On the one hand, splitting the two wasn't nearly as frustrating to read - my greatest gripe with A Song of Ice and Fire is that I seem to be ripped away from each narrative thread as soon as I find my groove in it. On the other hand, it made the book feel like two separate novels. There's some fancy-schmancy techniques, like mirroring, that do link the two, but the novel still feels disjointed. 
 I remembered the killing count competition between Gimli and Legolas from the movie, but it had felt like a Hollywoodism, and a bit too silly for Tolkien's style. So imagine my surprise when I found that it was actually in the book! Having them tease each other in such an informal way - given how formal and hoity-toity most of the character interactions have been so far - was a real pleasure to read. I mean, yes, it's about killing things, but it was lovely to see these two characters let down their hair a bit. 
 On a similar note, Gollum was great to read about. I remembered the conflict between the Gollum personality and the Smeagol one from the movie, and I really enjoyed seeing that played out in the book, though it was heartbreaking all over again. 
 All in all, I do find Tolkien to be a difficult read. The style doesn't gripe me, so I'm frequently finding myself drifting off into daydreams and then having to go back and reread a passage. But that's not to say that I'm not enjoying it. Seeing the inspiration of so many fantasy stories I've enjoyed played out, the mythic/edda inspirations, the masterful play of language... I think that this is one book that I will enjoy having read much more than I am enjoying reading.