i think it depends on what your after "gettin" from the hom series, my favs were number 12 "the peoples of middle earth", 1 + 2 "the book of lost tale 1/2" and number 5 "the lost road" (come on, it has the Entymologies!)

Only if you don't mind reading poetry, for rather than being prose, it is many lines of verse which comprise:
1) The Lay of the Children of Húrin (two versions);
2) Poems Early Abandoned (three of them);
3) The Lay of Leithian (The Gest—the romantic story of daring adventures—of Beren and Lúthien); and
4) The Lay of Leithian Recommenced.