The Lord of the Rings question

LOTR helped me get into reading books. so, I would start with that :)

lord of the rings since it's definitely shorter and slightly less complicated

Whichever one seems more interesting to you, probably. Do you want something romantic, or something gritty? They're pretty equal on things like the level of detail, scope of the story, development of the characters, etc. I'd recommend Lord of the Rings, but you have to be in the mood for it.