I've read the book but LOTR is a much better film than A Beautiful Mind. To be able to take such a detailed source material as the books and condense it down into three films (ok they are long films) takes a lot of doing. and both were originally books and both are better as books.
Ron Howard did not earn it for A Beautiful Mind it is an inaccurate retelling of that guys life, if you're going to do a bio pic at least get it right, he earned it for Apollo 13
the same applies to Denzel Washington who should have won for Malcolm X (and seemingly wouldn't have won if it hadn't been because of Russell Crowe going ape shit on people in the run up to the oscars)
in the end though I'm happy about Denzel Washington and Halle Berry winning, I'd of liked LOTR to get best picture, it's a toss up between him and Jackson though for Director but since LOTR has three parts they may hold off until the third part.
notice how we only give a damm about basically Director, Movie and Lead Actor and Actress