only scanned this thread, cos well it's late, or early depending on perspective
i've always bee too scared to read The Neverending Story, you can guess why
hmm, favourite books
I agree, Hitchikers Guide is a must
Lord Of The Rings, you have to survive the whole ''Gimli son of Gloin'' stuff on every single page to understand the beauty of the book though
ooh, anything by Garth Nix, awesome name and actually his birth name, it's fantasy magicy stuff, not entirely sure how to categorise books though. i particularly like the ''Sabriel'' trilogy by him
Noughts an Crosses i'm reading the forth book (latest) currently, google it to find out more
what else...oh yes, Neil Gaiman, ''American Gods'' i've actually read but the others look good as well, it's about the old norse Gods in a sort of battle against the modern Gods of Television and Money and such, quite fun. you might have heard of the film ''Stardust'' that's from a book he wrote by the same name.
Can't think of anything else off the top of my head