I don't see how that's a contradiction.
It's dry BECAUSE of descriptions of every single living thing, placing an emphasis more on the world by description rather than letting the audience fill in the blanks with their imaginations. At the same time, these descriptions are often flowery poems that bore the shit out of me. The result are one-dimensional characters, like PD said, because Tolkien places specific emphasis on the history of the world, and the land of Middle Earth moreso than their actions and character development.
I still really like the books but fuck.
I'm so torn on them.
If you've read the Fellowship of the Ring -- THE BEST LotR book -- then you know what I'm talking about. Read the Council meeting at Rivendell. It is like 10-15 pages of characters talking between each other. Just pure dialogue. Holy shit.

I originally read the books when I was 14 and holy poop, that shit was tedium.