I've always liked how when reading it you can really see Tolkien almost grow into himself while he was writing the book. It starts off rather juvenile, with quite a few interruptions of the narrator. The first half of the book is a bit jerky and while enjoyable, not always great at keeping you inside the work. You can really see the progression though, the further you get, the more mature the story and book is, and the better the quality of the writing. By the end, the narrator has nearly stepped out (which I feel is a very good thing), and the story has gone from something like a grandfather telling a fairy tale to kids in the living room, to something considerably more than that.

There are quite a few things in the book that didn't quite work or didn't fit, but when you get right down to it, in spite of the flaws, it was a great and fun book to read, and it was an invaluable bit of practice for Tolkien going into LotR.