That is true but HOME especially is a slightly premature step until the Silmarillion/UT has been grasped perhaps....
Of course the volumes containing the drafts of the LOTR are rather more approachable but won't provide so much info on elves....
If you can't get hold of the Guide or Companion but have good net access the Encyclopedia of Arda is a useful reference website - but the books are more convenient.
And Lal .. I am really looking forward to the "new book" - even though I find Morwen a bit ... well as Bertie Wooster might say it isn't hard to distinguish her from a ray of sunshine

..and I am not usually one of nature's optimists...