I saw or read an interview with Terry once where he said something like: "If at 16 you don't think LotR is the best story in the world then there's probably something wrong with you, and if at 45 you still think it's the best story in the world then there's definitely something wrong with you." (Quotation marks, but not verbatim I'm sure)

I don't think he meant it as a criticism of LotR, more pointing to the wealth of other literature that you might need a bit of maturity to get into.

It's funny how some people idolise "the classics" and yet if you actually read them then mostly they're just the popular fun stuff from an earlier era. Poor old Terry, he'll probably be a question on an A-level English exam one of these days.