Monday's recommendation

This is probably one of the most masterfully written books I've read in a while. So bear with me if you've seen the fantastic movie and have the fantastic childhood memory of this story.

The Neverending Story
by Micheal Ende

Let me just pause to take in the irony of the fact that a man called Ende wrote a book called the Neverending story. This, however silly it may sound, will never cease to amuse me.
So a pause for my inner giggling...
OK.
This story, if you buy the version I've shown, is written in two colors and tells two stories that are intertwined in more ways than one. The boy we follow in our world and the boy he reads about in another, are the principal characters. Although most of the story takes place in Fantastica (the imaginary world of the book) we recognize ourselves in the boy in our world, Bastien, as he reacts to the story and the characters.
These characters being Atreyu, a warrior the same age as Bastien, the Childlike Empress and a lucky dragon named Falkor. Atreyu is asked to save Fantastica as it is being destroyed by the Nothing and making the Empress sick.
We discover many ideas and truths inside of Atreyu and Bastien's adventures and as the two worlds meld together they discover who they are themselves.