I haven't read a lot of books in recent years thanks to video games and anime/manga but one series that has always been on my list of favorites is the Redwall series and anything else by Brian Jacques. Recently I got Castaways of the Flying Dutchman from the library and I love it as much as Redwall.
The only issue I have between Castaways and Redwall is the fact that...well...it's a different setting and characters going through the same basic plan that Jacques uses in all the Redwall books. People find clues to help their home, they gather a group to figure out the clues, they solve the riddles and save their home.
But they are still fantastic books.
I've also been very partial to the Silverwing series. Youth fiction it may be, but it will always hold a place in my heart.
I tried to read the Lord of the Rings but never could really get into it. 70 pages in and they barely left the Shire. It wasn't until recently that I learned that the Lord of the Rings series was never even intended as a book series at all but rather just as a description of a world that uses a language he was trying to make because Tolkien is originally a linguist, not a writer.
I also remember reading Dune when I was 14 and I was totally blown away by it, I oughta re-read that one and try to read the sequels.