Book recommendations/survey?

[ged]

Hi all,

I'm aware that this question is asked again and again... but I just didn't find the information I need, there are just too many places to look.

I read LOTR, the Silmarillion, and now I'm about to read Unfinished Tales. Sometime I'll also read the Hobbit, but currently I'm more interested in more ancient background information. I'm fascinated by the feeling of a whole world where Tolkien appears to be more a chronologist than its inventor. It is like in real history - you can pick out a period you're interested in and read essays, stories or historical speculations about it (even including contradictions), it gives a tremendous non-linearity to it: there's no need to read the parts in a specifc order. The only such "universe" I know about probably is Asimovs foundation trilogy (plus its additional novels), which fascinated me in a similar way.

It seems that there are about 12 more books by Tolkien about ME, am I correct? And the first two ones are the 2 Lost-Tales collections (which I actually plan to read ofter Unfinished Tales)? I wonder if there's a place listing the principal contents of these "background collections" (as far as I know they are all in the style of story/essay-collections) so I could find out which of them I'm interested in most. Or would you recommend a specific order to read them? Unfortunately I can't go to a shop and look into them, I'd have to order them (I'm living in Switzerland - here you don't find these books in stock). Great would be a survey what stories/essays are found in these books.

Thanks for your help!

Ged