Hello Mithril_Maiden!!! Welcome to AU!
I am Synariel. I hope you enjoy your stay here! ^^
I would also recommend The Hobbit>>The Lord Of The Rings>>The Silmarillion as a reading order.
For me the Silmarillion was easier to read after because things I heard in the movies got me interested
in back-stories, and those back stories were all in the Silmarillion.
I think the Sil can mean more
to a fan after LOTR because you come to love the characters so much that what they care about
becomes interesting to you. So you go to the Sil to learn about the stories that touched them so
much.
Also, I would like to put your mind at ease about the books. Though they're fairly different from the movies
in some areas, they were NOT a let down! At least not as far as LOTR goes. It's been so long since I've
read the Hobbit I don't remember all the details...But the LOTR books parts that were different from
the movies were usually better than what was in the movie.
So the differences weren't bothersome then.