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I read the LotR books at least 3-4 times before the movies came out, and I was pretty skeptical that a decent film adaptation could ever be made (I thought the best effort, actually, was Ralph Bakshi's animated one that ended in the middle for lack of money). In the end, I think PJ did about as well as anyone could do. There was stuff that drove me crazy (how could you leave out Tom Bombadil?) and stuff that midly annoyed me. But given the limits of the medium, I have a hard time believing you could do a better job bringing these books to film - especially the Director's Editions on the DVDs. Are the books better? Of course - but that's not a fair comparison.
As for "The Hobbit" in some ways it should theoretically be much easier to translate than LotR. You'll have to leave a lot less stuff out, for one. People who haven't read the books may not realize how different the tone is, and I hope PJ doesn't try to blur those differences too much to play to that audience. The Hobbit should be very different - it's a much lighter, funnier and more wistful story and if he keeps it that way, I think these films will be very successful.
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