Just be warned - this was Tolkien's attempt at creating an entire historical record of his imaginary world. It's a collection of stories and tales, as if someone had made an anthology of the mythic history of the Anglo-Saxon people. So some of the stories read easily, while others sound like they were translated from some long dead languages.
It IS really cool to run across characters from the trilogy with their first appearance - like when Gandalf shows up under another name, trying to bring peace to the world. It's even more cool to realize that some of the character classes are bigger than you'd think from their place in the movies. Who'd have guessed what the wizards really were? And what's with the whole Grey Havens thing?
And how very, very nasty the history of Morgoth and his servant Sauron were.
Then the utterly sad story of Turin Turimbar...poor guy will make you feel like you never had a bad day in your life. Apparently based on a Finnish medieval legend...
Well, as I said, proof of Geekdom
