What non-Tolkien 📔book is like Lord of the Rings, and should be read?

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Arguing with some of his premises, I mean. It's been many years for me too, but I seem to recall a kind of "even when you're right, you can be wrong" message in the books.

 

[Radaghast]

Arguing with some of his premises, I mean. It's been many years for me too, but I seem to recall a kind of "even when you're right, you can be wrong" message in the books.

Hm. Interesting. Any examples?

Reading one of the reviews on Goodreads, I think the premise of The War of the Flowers reminds me more of The Fionavar Tapestry (which I DNF and would not recommend; only read the first book and scanned summaries of the other two. Ugh).

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Hm. Interesting. Any examples?

You're really trying to force me into a reread, aren't you? 😄

It's been a long time since War of the Flowers too, but it reminded me of LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", where the well-being of a society depends on the continual torture of a child, on a greatly expanded scale.

 

[Erurávennë]

I'd say #1 is Thomas Malory + Le Morte D'Arthur. It's romance, epic in scale, Tolkien would've read it, it's a foundational text in many ways for plenty of other literature. I'd say easily as important as The Lord of the Rings.
An Oxford Uni Press book which is fun for fans of romance is Reynard the Fox by Anne Louise Avery.
Both are more continental in tone and inspiration than LR, which is more Northern. You could continue with stories of Charlemagne.
From native Britain:
3 William Morris books: The Wood Beyond the World (heavy on landscape), The House of the Wolfings (set in Mirkwood) and The Story of the Glittering Plain (his others probably too I've only got those 3) + some George MacDonald and it's all on JRRT's trail.
TBH I find Thomas Hardy has some affinity in the nature aspects and mode of writing

That's good to hear. I myself was considering Le Morte D'Arthur after seeing it mentioned in Seven Pillars of Wisdom.