I'd never recommend to anyone reading The Silmarilion until after reading LOTR. The Hobbit could be read at any time. The Silmarillion is a compilation of much earlier and fragmented works of Tolkien, with lots of editorial decisions made to make the book readable, if not completely coherent with Tolkien's two published books.
And the first few chapters of The Hobbit read like a kiddie book, because that's how it started. I was advised to continue reading, and would see the transformation into a more serious story later on.
Not bad for a book, and an entire mythology, that started with "In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit", scribbled on a piece of paper while proctoring university exams.