The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

This book gets easier and easier to read each time that I read it; Tolkien's world of Middle Earth (and beyond) is so rich that it takes a long time (and multiple readings) to get locations and people straight in my head. This time the stories fit together more clearly, but the stories were also more sad: I think I'm starting to see the characters in the stories as people (despite the lack of clear narrative arc). It was also easier to read this after getting back into Tolkien's style with The Hobbit, instead of launching into the opus with The Silmarillion and half-forgetting the charm of Tolkien at his narrative best.