>>212375620The Silmarillion is probably Tolkien's best work. It's a masterpiece. But it's challenging. Characters have similar names, and they live for thousands of years. So it can be hard to keep track of all of the names and places. But if you put in some effort (and don't mind looking at Wikis and maps to refresh your memory when needed), it's probably the best book about Middle Earth.
More recently, the Tolkien estate took some of the most notable stories from that book (Beren and Luthien, The Fall of Gondolin, and The Children of Hurin) and expanded them into their own books. But these are more scholarly - with multiple drafts and notations. So your mileage may vary.
And then if you're a casual fan, you'll probably want to avoid everything else (like the History of Middle Earth series). Those kinds of things are really deep archive work, not traditional stories.