I'd say Lord of the Rings, if you can manage to gnaw through the wall of text. It's heavy reading. Harry Potter, on the other hand, is a fairly easy read and Rowling is a talented writer.
Regarding settings, I prefer LOTR. Tolkien was so very dedicated to the details of his creations. Regarding reading value, well, the wall of text killed me while I've read the HP books a couple of times. Regarding the movies based on the books, well the Harry Potter films fail if you compare them to the books. The LOTR films miss out on a lot too, but is, in my opinion, a greater visual experience.
Magic is ok but a good warrior can kill an entire army of wizards or even archmages(strong wizards)especially if the warrior is an archknight so Lord of the Rings is by far the superior book.
