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I usually read a bit of a book before I buy it, especially if it's by an author I haven't heard of before. Once I have started a book, I usually finish it. Exceptions include the third Dune book and (I think) the second Thomas Covenant book, and I haven't had anything to do with either author since. (I liked Dune itself, though.)
I enjoyed The Silmarillion, but I don't regard it as a finished piece of fiction. It's an author's working notes. I like reading stuff like that. I liked the appendices at the end of The Lord of the Rings, too. I don't sit down and read that sort of writing all the way through, though. I tend to read it in bits and pieces, between other things. I haven't compulsively read all of Tolkein's working notes (e.g. some of the later Unfinished Tales, etc), at least not yet.
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