So, I read the books. And they are very good. There is a reason that the series is so influential.
And there are definitely some things that I do not like about the movies. The shield-surfing, for example.
But as movie adaptations go, it is pretty darn faithful to the original. Like, I've seen a lot of movie adaptations where you're going to miss a lot of material if you don't do the books, but they kept all the significant stuff in. They streamlined it a little, and no Tom Bombadill, but I seriously think that it does a solid job of capturing the original.
Like, if there's any book or series where I think that watching the movie would get you a pretty good approximation of the material and still be a really good movie, Lord of the Rings has to be near the top.