i picked it up, tryed to read it, then put it down.

[rashbold]

The Silmarillion is admittedly not an easy book to read, especially to those who had their first taste of Tolkien with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In fact Christopher Tolkien himself admitted that he made many mistakes in putting together his father's papers in an effort to make the largely unfinished saga of the First Age into a coherent whole. The problem was that J.R.R. Tolkien made so many changes to many aspects of his mythology, to the detriment of other aspects that Christopher was forced to go back to his father's pre-LotR writings which are sometimes of a more primitive state so we can get an idea of Tolkien père's intentions.
Let me give you an example: In the chapter "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin", the only other significant text in existence besides that which was published in Unfinished Tales was in The Book of Lost Tales part 2, so Tolkien fils was forced to make compromises by paraphrasing and condensation while in an effort to introduce inauthentic elements into the story.
I would recommend that you all read the last three books of The History of Middle-earth series as well as The Lost Road and Other Writings (Volume V) to see how Christopher Tolkien presented his father's ideas in the published Silmarillion.

Alasaila ná la kare tai mo nave mára. It is unwise not to do what one deems good.

[Lord_Ov_The_Thunder]

The sil is just a great book... it's just the best of tolkien's work, i have read the silmarillion over eight times, and i never get bored of it, its just a grand piece of work, and every time i read it i feel the chill of every scene as if i read for the first time, it's just great but i first tried to read it when i was 13!! i didn't at first understand the music of the ainur and the accounts on the valar..etc, but any1 should go through the book...it's awesome.