The Ainulindale - Rated 
Much has been said about the Silmarillion, most of it true.
I'll add my own 5 pence here: in my opinion, the Ainulindale is the truest and most accurate account of the Creation Story form any quarter. It beautifully merges the truths of the big-bang theme and the evolutionary theme, and shows them to flow from one single Intelligent Source- this is the truth, sans religion.
Furthermore, it is clear to me that Tolkien was gifted with the Sight, and did not invent these worlds; rather, he was 'allowed' to 'see' into happenings in other realms, and to record them as his earthly brain could so transcribe. These happenings being spoken of are largely the events in the World of the Elementals and the worlds beyond; the Elves are a representation of beigns that exist, and the Wars are a depiction of the universal struggle of good against evil.
I'll leave it there; ponder on this a minute.
Possibly the best Tolkien book out there... - Rated
Now, contrary to my title, I consider it the best book of all that I've read by any author. However, opinions are greatly divergent. "The Silmarillion" was the first Tolkien book I've read, before "The Hobbit" and "LotR". It consists of several parts:
Ainulindale, or "The Music of the Ainur", which depicts the making of the Universe by the One God, Eru Iluvatar, and His servants the Ainur, and is, in my opinion, the most glorious and most fascinating of all Tolkien writings.
Valaquenta, a short essay describing the nature of the Valar, the guarding Ainur that descended into Arda, the World.
Quenta Silmarillion, making the bulk of the book, it contains the enthralling legends of the Elder Days, ending some 6,500 years before the action of "LotR", and containing the stories that Tolkien mostly treasured of his whole work.
Akallabeth, describing the Second Age of the Sun in Arda, and concentrating on the history of the island of Numenor and its ruin by Sauron, a history closely reminding of the mysterious Atlantida.
The Rings of Power and the Third Age, briefly describing the events that culminated with the War of the Ring and the overthrow of Sauron.
This book is magnificent in every aspect, and is filled with heroic stories of ages long past. Although the style is a bit more difficult than that of "LotR", it's nevertheless a masterpiece in its own right.
A truly dedicated reader should know, however, that "The Silmarillion" is an editorial attempt of Tolkien's son, Christopher, and if one should want to see how intricate the story really was, one should move to "The History of Middle-earth", a profound study depicting the intricate evolution of the Silmarillion stories along the decades (volumes 1-5, 9-12).
Buy "The Silmarillion" and enjoy Tolkien at his greatest!
An ounce of imagination... - Rated
So, if you have read LOTR (or seen the films) and want to read more about Middle-earth, you are correct - this is the next place to go.
However, be warned.
It is not a novel. It is not a film script. You will have to read and re-read it several times before you 'get it'.
Why?
Imagine you are John Tolkien. Before you sits a blank piece of paper. You have some imaginary languages in your head. Entire languages you have made up. Just for fun.
You want to give them some background, so you start to write. You write for your entire adult life, but never quite seem to get it right. But you are lucky - because you are a creative genius, and because your son is as dedicated to all this as much as you are, and will tidy it all up after your time finally runs out.
So the end result is the creative equivalent of an entire people. Not fully fleshed out (you only had time to do that with The Hobbit and LOTR), but the outline is there and the skeleton is there.
So, as the reader you will only see the bare words on the page. But, if you have an ounce of imagination, you will fill the gaps yourself. And be astounded at the result.
I guarantee, not one of the people who complain it is 'dry' or 'emotionless' has every had an original thought for themselves. Go watch Die Hard on DVD. But if as you read a picture unfolds and you find yourself standing with Fingon staring across Anfauglith, you will have created your own version of the history of a world so full of simply the best stories ever written down.
Tolkien's true life work, ultimately unfinished though it is - Rated
In the Tolkien canon, THE SILMARILLION is the most highly contested of all his works. Constructed as a prehistoric history of the Universe, the book has the cultural significance of the Bible in Tolkien's universe. It is Tolkien's primary work, but it's also his most troublesome, in more ways than one. One thing you need to know. In Tolkien scholarship, there are two primary ways to refer to the "Silmarillion". One is the Silmarillion, the legendarium proper, and then the 1977 SILMARILLION, which may or may not be what Tolkien envisioned.
THE SILMARILLION, the book Tolkien spent all of his adult life writing, was, sadly, incomplete when Tolkien died at the age of eighty one in 1973. Naturally, this begs the question why did it take him decades to write the book, and it still be unfinished after all that time? Well, to understand that, you need to understand two things: the scope of the project, and how Tolkien worked.
The scope of the book was a complete imaginary history, a totally self-contained mythology, all written and developed for his home country, England (my home country as well). Imagine the Greek and Roman mythologies, all those myths and gods, developed by one man. Imagine Homer completely inventing all the gods for his stories. Imagine how hard that would be to come up with your own mythological traditions as such. No wonder Tolkien had such a hard time completing the work.
Now, the scope (which is extremely ambitious for any artist) was compounded by how Tolkien worked. First, he was a philologist first and foremost, and so before the stories he invented languages. All of these languages (which would have taken a life-time to develop on their own) had their own history, and are so interlocked with the mythology that you cannot remove them. He developed the main body of legends around these languages. Many features of the central body of legends changed relatively little over the years, but he wrote different versions of them at different times and in different styles. Some of the legends were set in poetry, those in annalistic histories, others in condensed summaries, and others in the more traditional (at least, for modern readers) novel format. A lot of these writings are also unfinished, due to Tolkien's perfectionist tendencies. Christopher Tolkien said that for most of his father's writing there existed a stable tradition from which Tolkien worked from, but there was no such thing as a stable text for the primary legends.
All this is tied to how Tolkien worked. C. S. Lewis famously stated that you did not influence Tolkien, you may as well as try to influence a bandersnatch. Tolkien would either take no notice of your criticism, or else he would start all over from the beginning. And so he did. A lot. Tolkien would reach a certain portion of the draft, be unsatisfied, and began the whole thing over again, while never reaching the end. Or Tolkien would have two copies of the same manuscript, one to be the fair copy and one to be working copy. Well, Tolkien would make conflicting revisions on both copies at separate times. How do you decide his final intent? Good question. These tendencies presented major problems from Christopher Tolkien when he prepared the 1977 SILMARILLION.
Another problem with Tolkien's work also is that toward the end of his life, he began contemplating changing major features of the mythology that stretched back to the earliest versions. A lot of these changes had to do with cosmology, with the sun and moon, and changing Arda (the earth) from a flat-world to a round world. In the original mythology, and the 1977 version, Arda begins as a flat world but is made into a round world. Tolkien contemplated other major changes that would have totally changed much of the more distinguishable features of the mythology, stable features present from the very beginning. Consult "Myths Transformed" in MORGOTH'S RING, Vol. 10 of THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH for more information.
Then we have the problem of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Tolkien was tantalizing close to some sort of final version of the work in the late 1930s (indeed, the 1937 version of the "Quenta Silmarillion" is the only complete version he ever made of the primary work and which is heavily used in the 1977 SILMARILLION). Then, due to publisher demand, Tolkien began working on his masterpiece for the next fourteen years, leaving the "Silmarillion" legendarium completely untouched for over a decade. When Tolkien picked up the Silmarillion again, he now had to account for LOTR and somehow incorporate that major work into the mythology. Tolkien did a lot of work on the legendarium after the completion of LOTR, but this work was plagued with uncertainty and contemplation of radical rewriting.
And in the last years of his life, Tolkien also began moving away from strict narrative and began working extensively on theological matters, essays on Elvish culture and lingustics, and other matters not tied to the actual narrative of the main storyline.
So when Tolkien died in 1973, he left his son Christopher in quite the predicament. Decades of writng, much if it unfinished, with a staggering palimpsest of manuscripts from which to draw from would be daunting to anyone. As literary executor, he had to come up with a publishable version of the work (as clearly that was his father's wishes, and Christopher was the man for the job, being most acquainted with the work). So, in four years, with the assistance of Guy Gavriel Kay, he cobbled together a self-contained narrative, largely compatible with the Hobbit cycle. Due to Tolkien's tendency to not finish drafts, some of the narrative in the last portion of the work had not been touched by Tolkien in literally decades (The Fall of Gondolin never got a complete version other than the 1916 Lost Tales story). Thingol and Melian presented thorny problems, especially the Girdle of Melian (her magical protection around Doriath). Christopher and Kay constructed the chapter dealing with the ruin of Doriath from scratch, with no corresponding writing in Tolkien's own work.
Yet another major issue was, due to getting a version of the book published as soon as possible, Christopher rushed through much of material, and did not have access to all of his father's manuscripts, some of which had been sold off. While he always used post LOTR material as often as possible, Christopher was as many times incorrect as not when guessing his father's intentions for the work.
In the ensuing twelve volumes of THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH (essential volumes for Tolkien scholarship and fans), where he had years to get to know the manuscripts, Christopher examines more closely his father's works, and there is much in those twelve volumes that were Tolkien's final intention for the work, but did not make it into the published version. Christopher has stated, given time, he may have produced a much different version than the one published. But he is now retired and will not revise the book (much of which would have to be wholesale).
That's quite a bit of history, and ultimately all that history may bog potential readers down in their journey into THE SILMARILLION. For all of its imperfections, its unfinished nature, the endless debates on how much the 1977 version is what Tolkien really intended, the book is powerful mythology. The reading is dry, and the names are jawcracking trying to pronounce. While it's hard to keep track of the multitude of characters and all the permutations and migrations of the three main Elven tribes, there are unforgettable images in the book, and beautiful passages of despair and hope.
While the work is not the most accessible for modern readers, for those who persist you can see why Tolkien really did regard this as his life work, or, as Tom Shippey says, "the work of his heart". And what a mighty work it is, despite its unfinished nature.
The creation of Middle Earth - Rated 
A slow starter with an interesting creation story explaining how Middle Earth was formed. The role of the female characters is very much secondary, especially Galadriel who is such an interesting character and is little discussed sadly. I hope to read the Histories of Middle Earth and see if more of her background is told.
Once it got going however, the book was really hard to put down. It had love, betrayal, courage, lust, power etc. Good versus evil, dragons, Balrogs and more! The most enjoyable part was finding out the heritage of people like Elrond and also who had the rings of the elves from LOTR (Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf).
It fills a lot of the gaps and background to LOTR and The Hobbit, but also managed to open up many more questions. I look forward to reading more.
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