I don't know how many different audiobooks there are, but I have the one narrated by Martin Shaw and I think it's very well done. He has a very soothing voice...
https://www.amazon.com/The-Silmarillion-J-R-R-Tolkien-audiobook/dp/B016N9U37Q
OP, this is the correct answer right here.
And even if you aren't looking for a whole book, you should still get Fonstad's Atlas. It's a bargain and gives you way more info than a mere book of maps. I once read it nearly cover to cover.
Thank you! I made it 7 years ago it’s free for use at rogertg.deviantart.com under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
I’m thinking about doing another one. Finwë is a good choice. What kind of materials do you think would be use in his heraldic device?
For Melian I used silver, onyx for the black gems, and tourmaline Paraíba for the blue gems.
This, OP. Buy it. It's cheap. It's indispensable. It's interesting enough to sit and read by itself.
I have this deluxe edition and it's by far my favourite. Good thick quality papers. Lots of illustrations by the best Tolkien illustrator, Ted Nasmith. It is clothbound with a miniature cover illustration like those timeless classic books.
And then there's this upcoming edition. I have pre odered it because it looks lovely. It is illustrated by Tolkien himself, but I don't think there will be a lot of illustrations.
I used two books as reference materials that helped me immensely. The first is A Dictionary of Tolkien by David Day The other was Tolkien's World from A to Z: A Complete Guide to Middle-Earth by Robert Foster
These books have a so much knowledge and really help connect names, places, events, and various terms that really deepened the experience for me.