How to simplify the Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion?

[Mornorngûr]

As Christopher Tolkien has mentioned, The Silmarillion has a reputation for being “strange and inaccessible in mode and manner”.

I remember when I lost my copy of the Silmarillion on a train in London some years ago, I was very upset as i had had that particular copy for many years and it meant alot to me. My cousin suggested that he would buy me another copy for my birthday that was coming up. He told me that he went into Waterstones and the guy at the counter asked him if he was sure he knew what he was buying, and informed my cousin that it was a very very difficult read and that he would put it in the catergory of masterclass. My cousin was infact very offended by this, thinking that he was being called stupid or something. so he tried to read it and just couldnt grasp the way in which it is written and set out, but after awhile and many attempts, he started to love it and bought himself another copy. he told me that for him the hardest thing to get to grips with was the amount of names within the story, and that he could only make sense of it once he had become familiar with all the names.