A lot of fans are convinced that the books are All That, but mostly I think those are people who either are too young to have read very much or are just the kind of people who don't read very much. And, in fairness, I was in my thirties when the books came out -- if I'd been twelve, I might be viewing them as completely magic to this day.

(When I was actually twelve, I read Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha over and over and over and over. I haven't dared to look at it as an adult, but it's fair to assume that it's not the world of beauty and wonder that I thought it was when I was a kid.)