Tolkien vs. Joyce

In 1998 Modern Library published its list of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century.  James Joyce's Ulysses was ranked #1.  See the whole list here.  My favorite book, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, didn't even make the top 100.  It did however come in at #4 on Modern Library's readers' poll.  Similarly, in 1997 the British newspaper The Telegraph polled its readers for their favorite books of the last century.  The Lord of the Rings took the top spot.

I know some people who read Tolkien's masterpiece (a term I do not throw around loosely) every single year.  This year I decided to join this illustrious club.  On the other hand, how many people have actually read Ulysses?  In 2004 NPR covered Dublin's celebration of the day 100 years after the single day in which the events of the book take place.  Part of the story was how unreadable most people find Ulysses:

The difficulty of reading Ulysses is as legendary as the book itself — many of the passages are written in Joyce's signature stream-of-consciousness style, and there are countless allusions to stories of the Bible and Greek mythology. In some versions of the book, notes explaining the meaning of certain passages go on for more than 250 pages.

Thus two very different books, each considered by some to be the best book of the 20th century.  The critics elect an unreadable book.  The people elect a book that they read over and over again.  Yet ever since its publication English departments and the rest of the literati have dismissed The Lord of the Rings as popular (gasp!), genre fiction, and escapist.  Alas, I have not read James Joyce, so I have to reserve final judgments for that day, (as Don Corleone says) if that day ever comes, when I do read it.  But I doubt my present inclinations will sway.

What say you?  What's your favorite book and why?