Unpopular opinion but you could skip The Hobbit altogether.

You could either read the LOTR trilogy, which is the greatest fantasy series of all time, or you could watch the movies, which are the greatest trilogy of movies of all time. And it’s worth doing both eventually.

This won’t be a popular take, but honestly Storm of Swords was the most emotionally overwhelming book I’ve ever read. I read it back before it was ever an HBO series and had no idea what I was getting into. I usually run out of steam on really long books, but that’s one that I absolutely ripped through as fast as I could. IMO it’s easily the best of the series.

You can find lots of easily snippable pics in magazines for your collage.