Has any one actually finished the Silmarillion?

[Dekuben]

Seriously, the SIlmarillion is a beast of a book. It's staring at me from the book shelf, taunting me because i can't finish the damn thing! I read up to halfway or so and just get lost! Then when i come back to the book later, i have to restart the whole thing! SO annoying!

If anyone has finished it can you tell me how you managed to achieve such a feat?

[novastar]

i finnished it a long time ago, I dont remember how i got through it, i had just finnished the hobbit, and the 3 LOTR books, i know it took a while

[sherenetms]

i finished it last last year. Borrwed it from a friend since i havent got one at that time. Read through it several times to understand the whole thing. Funny thing though, the one abut niniel. lol

[yumisan]

eh...i didn't even read it before~!:D because i don't even have the book but soon i'll get it if i got time to read.i think i'll need to read it at least three times according to the way you people describe it.i'm kinda dumb when it comes to understanding texts and stories.guess what i even take 3 years to finish the lotr and the hobbit.^^

[Undying]

I finished it, and it was quite interesting. It is indeed easy to lose yourself in all those sotries and side-stories, but hell, you can do it...

[Hattori]

I did, it was interesting, but I was in fourth grade, so I got the names confused and don't have the patience to read it again.

[Sosai Wakasaki]

I ve read the book!! Is awesome!!! But is a little confusing too...Too much chars...:S

[Nomadic Dragon]

I have..and it's a book I wouldn't mind reading if I had enough time to. You just have to have persistance and the glossery in the back is good to refer to if you can't remember a certain character.

[Kozumou]

Nope, I got about half-way through . . . I usually love that kind of thing, but it was just so boring! I don't remember a single thing that I read, now. I still have the book, but it doesn't taunt me at all. I gave up on it quickly and decided that I didn't care. I wasn't even too big on The Lord of the Rings, though I did enjoy them. The glossary is fun, though.

[M-50]

I have finished it ages ago. I must have finished that book in a couple of days.

[Tennyo Hakumei]

I have finished that book six times already and the first time I did I was 13, I think

[Shinomori]

Wow, let's all try and prove how big our e-penis is by our literary fortitude!

I read it.

Once.

And I'll never do it again.

BORING.

I loved the LOTR trilogy, but that was just painful to read.

[Tyenkrovy]

I never read it all the way through. I just kinda skipped around in it, reading bits and pieces. Some of the stuff is cool, like the creation of Middle Earth and the Eldar and whatnot

[Kazmiz]

read it all, it was friggin HUGE!!!

[High On PCP]

I've been through it twice. Apparently i'm gifted at reading though. I can read really fast and everything registers in my head. Sometimes its just like a see a picture in my head, not even the words, but I can still read the words, its crazy.

[mad one]

I've read it maybe 3 times. It did take a bit of will-power to keep going the first time though. However I actually liked it overall in that it gave Tolkien's world so much more depth and character. There were so many references to the past events in the Lord of The Rings and the Hobbit - the Silmarillion explained those events properly so now I know what they were going on about in the Trilogy.

[TwilightFlower]

I finished it once and enjoyed it immensely. To me, it was like reading mythology, which I love. And it does fill a major gap, because England doesn't have too much native mythology left. Much of the Celtic mythos has been lost because it was largely passed down orally and what remains is heavily mixed with Christianity, just like Beowulf is now. The Silmarillion was just so interesting to me that I couldn't put it down.

However, it is a huge book and a bit daunting to try to reread when I have other school work to take care of. A lot of times what I'll do is pick one story that I particularly enjoy or want to brush up on and just read that section over. Of course, in that case, the glossary and family trees are your friends.