I share your preferences. I have had no interest in rewatching the Hobbit movies. I will admit though, that listening to the poetry delivered by actors is a somewhat superior experience than my own reading.

I paid particularly close attention in my reading to Merry and Pippin, and i am uncertain whether i respect Tolkien's handling more than the movies'. I definitely found the backstory and the establishment in the books more appealing, as i note above, but Tolkien really leans on Pippin so much more than Merry. Well -- it's not as much as i thought:

https://www.kaggle.com/xvivancos/analyzing-the-lord-of-the-rings-data

Merry 137, Pippin 163 => Merry has 84% of the dialogue Pippin gets

In the movie, Merry gets a bit more attention.

http://bl.ocks.org/nbremer/6599644129c034d0cb17fcdc452c310b

Merry 1117, Pippin 1261 => Merry has 89% of the dialogue Pippin gets