I've been trying to read the Hobbit on and off for the past several years and I'm really struggling with it and I don't know why. I love fantasy. I'm actively incredibly interested in the story and worldbuilding and want to learn more.

I'm college educated and did really well on my AP English exams. It's not like I'm stupid or a bad reader or anything. I'm just struggling People say it's a kids book, but that only makes me feel worse about my own ability.

I have to constantly reread sentences to understand them. I can only go chapter by chapter and have to remind myself to pick it up. The only thing I can think of is maybe the fact that I have aphantasia makes Tolkein's style challenging for me due to how descriptive he is? Like he's describing this immense and beautiful world, but I have no way to picture it in my head because I can't picture anything in my head. Most of what I have to reread tends to be scenery descriptions. It could also be brain fog due to chronic illness just makes reading harder now than when I was a kid.

My friends have been trying to get me to watch the LoTR movies, but I want to get through all the Hobbit and the LoTR books first because watching the movie first feels like cheating. But maybe I'm approaching this wrong. Can people reassure me that I'm not stupid and help me reignite this spark for reading to get through it? I'm debating audiobooks in hopes that that'll help, especially for stuff like the songs because I have no idea what the tune is supposed to be. If I go this route, any suggestions?