I like The Hobbit, but I do not like The Lord of the Rings. Should I try The Silmarillion? Or, based on that previous comparison, is it probably not my sort of thing?
All the best,
Astrid
I really enjoyed both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but it took me a while to read the trilogy.
I never could get through The Silmarillion, possibly because some of it is unfinished and a bit more into his world-building than I really cared to go.
It’s also been probably 20 years or so since I tried reading it.
{Edited to add} I’m certain large swathes of the SFF fandom would happily tar and feather me for admitting that. Particularly since SFF/spec-fic/horror are my preferred genres to read and write.
But, I’m too old to going diving into lockers or lie about what I have and haven’t enjoyed reading. There are too many good books that capture my attention to force myself through a book that just doesn’t click.
I’m far less likely to force myself to finish a book these days than I was in my 20s or 30s.
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A resounding YOU. SHALL. NOT. PARSE! 
It’s basically a huge infodump. I read it (in small doses), and I’m glad I did. But once is enough.
On the other hand… maybe it works for you because it is not the Lord of the Rings. Rather a history book, with lots of names and years and stuff. Some people dig that.
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You shouldn’t buy it. But it wouldn’t hurt to check it out of the library and read the first couple of chapters.
The full Tolkien Legendarium is vast. Almost all of it is primarily of interest to Tolkien scholars.
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Yay if you want to dissect Tolkein, it’s meaty for that. If you just want to take in/enjoy, I agree about the library–read the beginning and the end though. Beginning is mythos and end talks about events in and around the LOTR era etc.
Never hurts to try!
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I find the language of The Hobbit (and of his friend C S Lewis’ Narnia books) to be very wooden. Clearly products of their time. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings sextilogy (each hardback volume containing two books) to be more approachable and easier to read.
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I actually read The Lord of the Rings (in 1966, a fellow college student lent me his copies saying I would love it… he was right! I did nothing at all over the whole weekend except eat sleep and read it) long before I read The Hobbit… which I hadn’t even heard of.
To me, The Hobbit is a fun children’s book, but The Lord of the Rings is very different. It chimed with me, and even though I knew nothing about Tolkien, even apart from the whole story, it was the languages that felt real and made it believable, where invented languages in other books felt simply made up ad hoc.
So I’ve read LotR dozens of times. In some ways, I found the Silmarillion to be even better. Even though unfinished and put together by Christopher Tolkien, it seems to me to be closer to the heart of his father’s world; it is for those that want to immerse themselves in that world. I think some parts, particularly those parts that seem to have been finished by JRRT himself, are greater than LotR.
So, Astrid, if you aren’t a fan of LotR, then I think you’ll probably find a lot of The Silmarillion heavy going.
Can I also say that I’ve read (and own) every single one of the volumes that Christopher Tolkien published after the Silmarillion, and I have a fair number of books on the whole world and mythology written by other authors. But no, in case anyone should think of asking, I can’t speak Elvish… I wish I could, but Chinese has taken up more than enough of my time and energy!
Mark
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I finally got through it by listening to Andy Serkis’ audiobook recording. He brought it alive! Absolutely incredible. I don’t think I could necessarily get through it in book form though.
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In light of all your comments, I have now read the Kindle sample on Amazon, and listened to an Audible sample (not read by Andy Serkis, though), and am edging towards the view that The Silmarillion is not my cup of tea. From those samples, I suspect that it focuses heavily on the aspects of The Lord of the Rings that I found most off-putting!
Thank you for the useful feedback, everyone.
All the best,
Astrid
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From this, it seems to me that it is the very things that enthralled me about The Lord of the Rings that put you off! So yes, The Silmarillion will not be your cup of tea.
Clearly, we are on different sides of some kind of literary divide… from past exchanges, you may remember that I can’t get on with Dickens, where you can.
Mark
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I wonder which literature our preferences may overlap on? Is there a magical “something” that everybody likes to read?
The Wind in the Willows (Rackham illustrated) - Hang the spring cleaning …
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How much have you read the Lord of the Rings by the way? I remember first reading it when I was young (I can’t remember, but in high school). It was tough! So much exposition and world building. It was a slog.
But as I grew up, I gave it another chance and slowly but surely it became the most fascinating literary creation I could get my mits on. Instead of loathing the world building aspects of the story, I came to want more. That being said, Lord of the Rings makes it easier by being integral to the actual story being told about the characters.
From my own experience, The Silmarillion (brought to life by Andy Serkis) was something that didn’t pique my interest until I was well invested in the LOTR mythology and world building.
In other words, I would suggest giving LOTR (in all its details) another round and let it all soak in. Or just read something else. It’s up to you!
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I read the whole thing but it was about 30 years ago, when I was in hospital having my children, and I may have been slightly distracted 
And I may (later) have allowed my judgment to be distorted by the representation in the Peter Jackson film cycle – I found all those battle scenes and orcs a bit tedious by the end. You’re probably right, and I should give the books another go.
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