In the case of Middle-Earth, I feel like my enjoyment of The Silmarillion when reading it the second time was greatly enhanced by the existence of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. The first time I read this book, it was hard to really grasp everything or to remember all of the names. When rereading it, I found it significantly more enjoyable being able to imagine the Middle Earth as I'd seen it in film. The Silmarillion reads basically like a history of Middle Earth. For fans of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, The Silmarillion is a must-read. A helpful companion book, I found, is Tolkien: A Dictionary by David Day. I was able to use this book when I came across a character or a name which I didn't remember, which happened often enough in the long length of time it took me to finish.