[Knight of Gondor]

Linaeve, I'm not so very far away from your age at all, and I still find a fair amount of time to read up. My knowledge came mostly from reading the histories, but I've only read The Silmarillion and the two books of lost tales. My suggestion is that you read the appendices of RotK and find out whether you're really up to all that technical stuff about Middle-Earth. If you are, then buy/borrow a copy of The Silmarillion and read it. I have yet to tackle the rest of the histories, but they're on my Christmas list this year.

Meantime, stick with this board, you'll learn plenty!