I was a Harry Potter kid like you and spent my childhood reading and re-reading Harry Potter. I spent so much time reading Harry Potter that I never thought of reading LOTR. I saw the movies when they came out and really enjoyed them so I had always been meaning to read LOTR one day. It is now on my to-read list (I haven't actually added them on here though) and I am going to try to tackle them next year. I always thought I was the only one yet to read them.