The Silmarillion first could be pretty confusing--it's written much more like a History book than LotR, so it helps to have an urge to read it, knowing that it will help you understand stuff in LotR better, instead of vice versa. You should have a goal or reason for reading it--I read it so that I could put the pieces together and figure out stuff that is mentioned in LotR.

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^I wanted to read it because it had such a cool name...lol!

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"If I had a button that would cause all guns everywhere to disappear, I might push it.
Wars would be more fun if we used swords again."
– one of my guyfriends