I agree with the person who lamented that older series were being forgotten. I love Harry Potter but some of the older series are just as wonderful. If you love high fantasy, Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road) is a must. It will make you cry. The writing is so lovely.

"GGK has said that one of his motives for writing it was to show that the 'matter' of High Fantasy was deep enough to be used in various original ways, and that the genre did not have to become debased into nothing but pale Tolkien imitations"  (http://www.brightweavings.com/books/fionavar.htm).

Kay helped Tolkien's son Christopher edit the then unpublished The Silmarillion. That should give him pedigree for the Tolkien fans. If you haven't read the trilogy, please do so. It will be well worth it.

    I have not read any of the Harry Potter series or Eragon, but if, as they say "the books are better than the movies" I'm sure that holds true for these. I found the plot and character developement of Eragon to be a little weak but he is a young writer so, for his age and knowledge, not to bad. I've not even heard of Artimus Fowl but may have to check it out.

    There is not much that Tolkein has written that I have not read but the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, in my opinion, are required reading for any fantasy novelist. It is Tolkein's interpretation of fantasy races that has shaped our perception about what the humans, elves and dwarves culture and appearence should be. Yes, some of it can be a little long and drawn out but it's well worth bearing the "extra" content to get to the meat of the story. The way he weaves his beliefs and views on politics, god vs. evil, etc, subtly into the story-line, almost without the reader knowing it, have greatly influenced the way that I write. As was stated in a couple of other posts, yes, it is almost impossible to write a fantasy story without "borrowing" something from LOTR because it is so inclusive and encompasing. Tolkein is truly the "father of fantasy" and his story contains many themes which are present in almost every fantasy work written since. Don't feel bad about this, just make your novel different by creating a fantasy world of your own with characters and a story that will add something different and creative to the fantasy genre.

"The Name of the Wind" is excellent, one of the best books I have ever read in my life.  As for the Lord of the Rings, it's excellent too, especially when you consider the context of when it came out and what society was like (we're talking the fifties!)  By the early sixties, escapism was no longer a dirty word.  LOTR also paved the way for so much imagination and enthusiasm for fantasy that would've evolved completely differently without its creation.  It started the Dungeons and Dragons phenomenon; something that is nearly gone but also something that me being a writer appreciates.  We have to remember where we came from!