Someone else posted this over on Wotmania, but The Hobbit's 70th anniversary just passed. It was published on 21 September 1937. More
here.
I first read The Hobbit in 1995, a few months after reading The Lord of the Rings. I was a bit older than its intended audience (I was 16 at the time) but quite enjoyed it. A bit like the Rings it starts off very jovial and gets a bit more serious (although never as serious as Rings) as it goes along. Thorin was a great character, the Bilbo/Gollum face-off was pretty tense and disturbing and the Elven king (later revealed to be Thranduil) was a bit of an arse.
Interesting if the film version ever gets made, although I'm not sure about Sam Raimi as the potential director.