Has anyone really read this book?

[Mike]

I would reall like to know if people have really read this book plus the Lost tales. They’d start out reading like a text book and had to stay interested in continuing.

[Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~]

I find The Silm is best in small doses.

[Corbin]

It is a great book if read subsequent to LoTR and the Hobbit. The Silmarillion is regarded as Tolkien's most cherished work, developed over a number of years with a variety of different changes made to the narrative (as can be seen in Part 1 and 2 of the Lost Tales). Simply put, it is similar to reading the Old Testament. It is a very dense book, but tremendously thought-provoking if you have any interest in the development of Middle Earth and Aman. Highly recommend.

[Carl]

Admittedly, some of the Silm can be pretty dry, given the way it's written. In fact, the first 20-50 pages can be pretty hard for me (i've gone through the book a few times), but when i keep at it, eventually i adapt to it's presentation and i start enjoying it immensely. It's similar to when i read The Iliad. The prose in that book is so old fashioned that i could read a few pages and not glean anything, but then something just clicks and i start getting, and enjoying it. Not sure if this experience is common or not though.

[Michael]

The Silmarillion is hard going, but I put it up there as one of my favourite books. Something about the history and mythology Tolkien wrote really strikes a chord with me. I kinda like that it's not written in a standard way - the concentration required to make sense of a lot of it means the story sticks in the mind.
I especially love the 'Doom of Mandos' and the knowledge that no matter what the Elves do they will eventually be undone by it.

[Phoenix2]

Admittedly it's not an easy book to read, but if you loved the main books of LotR and you want to know more about Middle Earth and its mythology, you'll find some interesting stories in this one

[Whitney]

While I did find myself reading a little lightly over the chapters that detail the geography of Middle Earth, I thought the Silmarillion was an enchanting journey overall. It's almost like the Old Testament of Middle Earth--but full of mythology that oozes an epic, ancient feel. Reading about the creation of the great eagles and the Ents was particularly fascinating :)

[Ren]

Well, I read the whole book when I was about 12 or 13 years old but it was too complicated for me I guess and now (5 years later) I can't remember ANYTHING about the story... I'm gonna re-read it for sure!

[Phillip]

I feel this is a history book, NOT a novel. I only recommend it to diehard Tolkien fans and Middle-earth academics.

[Bruno]

Loved the Silmarillion.

It doubled the enjoyment of TLOTR for me because I was able to read the main trilogy again with fresh eyes, and actually understand much of the deep lore that was alluded to.

When the characters said something like "Numenor" in the LOTR it was just a place in the first read. On the second read, after the Silmarillion, you'd have a background of the great kings, their foolish fall and a sense of what had been lost.

There's something about an interwoven mythology that makes the books greater than the sum of their parts.

[Gordon]

I love the Silmarillion. I haven't read the Book of Lost Tales yet. I found that reading the Silmarillion was like reading collections of myths and legends (I like that sort of thing too), similar to the Mabinogion or Volsungasaga.