The first time I read the books I only got to a little after bombadil. Maybe halfway through fellowship, and then I quit.

And then the movies came out and I was like. Oh yeah this is way easier.

But then I was teaching a student who was obsessed with the books and had read every tolkien work related, so I finally went back.

And it's so funny. You mentioned that quote by gandalf because again I had the opposite reaction. When gandalf said that Tom wouldn't care about the ring, I just had this feeling of "Well of course not, that isn't his concern."

I just had this bizarre connection to how peculiar though powerful Tom was, I guess.

Yeah if they find a letter in 20 years that tolkien wrote to his editor that tells them to just take Tom out of the final draft because he's still figuring out what to do with him ultimately, I would think" Oh of course, that Tom guy is practically an anachronism in lotr."

Structurally, sure, take him out, but for just my feeling of the whole world, I do like enigmas and idiosyncrasies and Tom is a haiku in a hurricane.