I've never read the books, but watching the first movie I'm now caught up in the fantasy, so they've got me hooked. Once I've seen all the movies, I'll read the books. But so far I'm a big LOTR fan. I guess this is what it feels like to "jump on the bandwagon".
Hmm....well, I'll be buying the first release to have the theatrical version, and the 5 disc one, assuming the packaging for the 4 movie/extras discs is the same as the 4 disc version.