My favourite book has to be LotR. Easily. But David Eddings' stuff is top notch too. The Old Kingdom Series is something I don't think I've ever seen mentioned, that's a good fantasy read. Paolini and Pratchett get mentions, the former was influenced by the above and it clearly shows. The latter does something different in tone so I can't really put him in the same boat as the others. Currently I've picked up the first of the Mistborn books, anyone have opinions on those?