I noticed that a few people listed A_Wizard_of_Earthsea as one
of their best books. I was just curious why.... I read it and thought it was a pretty good read, but I didn't think it rated -that- well. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember feeling like I was watching a movie that was shot completely from one far-away angle. By this I mean that I didn't feel like I could get close to the characters or even really know them or see them as anything more than 2-dimensional.
I haven't read many of the other books people listed (including
Pullman, which is one of the next books on my list, after I reread
LotR). I did read Susan Cooper's The_Dark_is_Rising, however, and at the time was more impressed with some of the books, most notably
The_Grey_King than I later was with A_Wizard_of_Earthsea.
I think I'd also put A_Wrinkle_In_Time up there, and
The_Phantom_Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I guess I'd put
The_Hobbit and maybe even the rest of LotR, even though LotR is probably better suited for adults. The only reason I'm really including LotR, though, is because it was sort of like a weird Book of Gold for me. In elementary school I couldn't resist walking up to the "big kids'" bookshelf in our school library and grabbing the large, slightly tattered, forbidding black books branded with the red ring and eye. Much later I picked up Shadow and Claw because of that same forbidding look (and because I read the first chapter, which was wonderful).
--Joel