[davem]

From David Bratman's essay 'The Literary Value of The History of Middle-earth' in the collection 'Tolkien's Legendarium:

The History of Middle-earth was not designed by its editor for casual reading, and only scattered parts of it have the potential for the kind of widesp-ead popularity that came to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But ths much of it that can be read as straightforward narrative, ignor the textual notes, by a reader with a sympathetic attitude towards uthor's and editor's intent. And of course it is a tremendously rich source for scholarly study.
ow then should one read The History of Middle-earth? Twelve large, solid, nearly identical-looking volumes can be a daunting prospect. The bvious answer, to begin at the beginning and go on until one has reached end and then stop, does not necessarily apply. Such a reading would give the reader a nearly full picture of Tolkien's creative imagination as applied in his Jegendarium, from the first stirrings of the 1910S to the final] notes of the 197os. But not every reader will want or need such an approach, especially because of the tremendous amount of duplication in differen t versions of the same stories. The volumes are made to be dipped into and consulted, especially by readers already familiar with The Lord of the Rings md The Silmarillion. Which books readers should choose to read for pleasure depend on their individual tastes and interests.
Some Tolkien readers will not get much out of The History of Middleearth. Those who consider the post - Tolkien epic fantasies of Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Dennis McKiernan, and David Eddings to be equal in appeal to The Lord of the Rings will probably not enjoy Tolkien's posthumous works. But those who find something special in Tolkien's writing above that of other fantasists can choose from of a variety of material, catering to a variety of tastes:

. Readers who, like Sam Gamgee, want to hear more about Elves, or who are :aptivated by the tales in Aragorn's lay of Beren and Llithien and in Bilbo's poem of Earendil, should read The Silmarillion, which functions as ;reader's edition" of "The Silmarillion," and follow it with The Boof Lost Tales, then with the other History of Middle-earth books, in partular The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Lost Road.
. Readers who most enjoy The Hobbit might also enjoy The Book of Lost Tales, though among Tolkien's posthumous works they should first turn to his children's stories: The Father Christmas Letters, Mr. Bliss, and Roverandom.
. Readers who like Tolkien's poetry for its own sake should definitely read The Lays ofBeleriand.
. Readers who most enjoy the appendices to The Lord of the Rings with their details of kings and genealogies should read Unfinished Tales and The Peoples of Middle-earth.
. Readers who most enjoy Tolkien's storytelling abilities should also read Unfinished Tales, followed by The Peoples of Middle-earth, Morgoth's Ring. and The War of the Jewels, in that order.
. Readers curious about the "making" of The Lord of the Rings, as one might watch a documentary on the making of a favorite movie, should read The Return of the Shadow and its successors in the subseries.
. Readers who come to Tolkicn from his fcllow Inklings, C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams, should read Sauron Defeated for The Notion Club Papers and The Lost Road for the title story.
Readers interested in Tolkienian linguistics will find the glossaries, etymologies, and linguistic essays in The Book of Lost Tales, The Lost Road, The War of the Jewels, a"\d The Peoples of Middle-earth of particular interest.
There is, then, much in The History of Middle-earth to reward the sympathetic eyes of those who care to look. In a famous essay. Tolkien complained that "Beowulf has been used as a quarry of fact and fancy far more assiduously than it has been studied as a work of art" (MC, 5). He did not mean that scholarly quarrying was necessarily a misuse of Beowulf, and still less is it a misuse of The History of Middle-earth, which requires its editor's elucidation merely to be generally comprehensible. But I hope to have shown, as Tolkien did for Beowulf, that there is art in this unique and valuable series of books, and that readers will find their way to it.

(copied with a pen scanner, so please forgive any mistakes in transcription)