The Hobbit

From Lotro-Wiki.com

The Hobbit is a book by JRR Tolkien, his first published work in the Middle-earth universe. It tells about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, and how he came to possess the One Ring. Generally, it was written as a Children's book, and so containing a somewhat lesser amount of boring "facts"; it serves as a good introduction to the ring-universe. Since the story contained in the Hobbit also takes places chronologically before the one contained in LOTR, that would indeed be the wiser decision.