I've begun listening to an unabridged recording of the Rings Trilogy during my commute.  I just finished the "Tom Bombadill" sequence this morning.  A couple months ago, when I listened to "The Hobbitt" the songs were a minor annoyance because there weren't that many of them and the plot moved along fairly briskly.  But, man alive!, this next part is so slow it doesn't even rate as crawling and there is a pause for some sing-songy bit of drivel on what would be every page in print!  For the life of me, I can't see why this stuff has been so popular for so long.  I'll probably finish listening to it for the sake of being acquainted with such a famous work, but I doubt I'll ever be a fan.

reading it would probably be better. I find I like audio reading only after I read the book first....

The good LOTR CD set is the BBC set with 12 or 13 CDs. There's also a poorly done American version which is on 9 CDs.

Errr...don't worry about Tom too much.
He is an enigmatic character even to the most diehard fans.
I rather enjoyed that particular digression...but I can see where it would be annoying in spoken form.

Anyway...he didn't make the movie...nor will most of the other singing I'll bet.

Not a flame, but, it IS a book you know...grownups are expected to read them themselves :P

Fear not...the good stuff is coming.

Keep at it, I'm sure you'll be glad you did once you get further.  You'll be surprised how much the tone of things changes...it gets less and less like the hobbit (in regard to the "maturity" level).