I was never a huge fan of fantasy fiction (I'm a sci-fi geek). I was introduced to playing Dungeons & Dragons, and enjoyed that. We would have weekend marathons, playing non-stop from Friday night into early Sunday morning. I found and bought the complete collection of Tolkien, but I had a very hard time getting into it. Then I discovered Dragon World.
Dragonworld (August 3, 2011)
by Byron Preiss (Author), Michael Reaves (Author), Joseph Zucker (Illustrator)
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it opened my mind to fantasy fiction. I still find Tolkien hard to read, but I enjoy the movies.