I think most people would tell you to read THE LORD OF THE RINGS first, but what I'll do is just describe the books and maybe that will help you form an opinion. I'm sure others will make suggestions, too.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS is basically an adventure story, but it goes through different phases. Some parts of the book have more action than others, some parts of the book focus only only a handful of characters, some parts of the book have a "cast of thousands." The whole story, once you put it together, is pretty interesting but it's deep.

THE SILMARILLLION is basically a history book, and it intertwines historical narrative with actual stories. Many people compare it to the Bible in the way it starts out and how it reads. The style is very different from LOTR, very formal, but not quite textbook heavy.

If you read THE SILMARILLION first and enjoy it you won't really get much about THE LORD OF THE RINGS. But don't read "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" (the last section in THE SILMARILLION) until after you have read THE LORD OF THE RINGS. You'll miss some interesting stuff, but it would spoil the book for you.

I often wish I could have read THE SILMARILLION first. Certain characters would have had more meaning for me when I got to THE LORD OF THE RINGS than they did the first time I read the book.

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