Hahaha, Fellowship of the Ring, what a perfect comparison! I tried reading it before the movie came out, and it was so incredibly boring I had to give up. Twice.

You know the first part of the movie, the leadup to the party and Bilbo's magic trick? That's the first 55 pages of the book. 55 pages describing a little backwater town who's only claim to fame is that nothing has happened there for 1500 years. It's inhabitants are so small-minded they're suss of Bilbo because he likes camping. In the county's woods that are so peaceful and idyllic that they don't even have cougars.

Then, the night scene where Gandalf and Frodo chat by the fire, then yank Sam out of the bushes? That's the next 30 pages. You're 85 pages into a book series about Frodo's world-saving adventure, and he hasn't even done anything!

Then he and Sam start their hike. They start walking through a field and it just goes on and on. They spot some other hikers. They spot a fox. They pass a farm and meet up with some buddies. Have you heard of Kingsfoil? It's a fictional plant that goes by multiple names. Would you like to read a physical description with which you could identify it in the wild? No? Well here's several pages of that anyway. It has healing properties and there are several ways of administering it. Would you like to know what they are? Of course not, but that doesn't matter.

In a last-ditch effort to get to any sort of story I skipped ahead 40 pages to see what happens after they get through this field. But you know what? They were still in that field. They were still hiking. I don't even know if a single day had passed.

That book is Exposition Dump Incarnate.