Well, judging from the fantasy written today, I'm guessing a lot of young readers just can't handle books that don't spoon-feed you the story. Personally, I don't mind books like that most of the time, but it's all those "useless details" in Tokien's work that made the books totally worth it for me. There are tons of little hidden themes and messages that you don't catch if you're not really paying attention.

I find it amusing that everyone bitches about the stuff in Tolkien, which I think is actually pretty necessary to build a believable and workable world, when no one ever complains about Victor Hugo's endless descriptions of Paris. Now that stuff CAN be cut out without ever messing with the meat and bones of the story.