Since I excused you for being a bitch, you're going to have to excuse me for being an asshole.

Seriously, though, the reason I put up those books is because those are masterpieces of writing, not because that's all I read. I'm reading the New Jedi Order series right now, for crying out loud. The fact of the matter is that truly great works of literature are rare. Sci-fi and Fantasy haven't been around long enough to have a lot of them. Lord of the Rings, for sure, is a tour de force.

Besides, none of the works listed above are remotely obscure. They're all established (and accessible) masterpieces of Western Lit (except Zen).

I love reading fantasy, but with few exceptions it isn't nearly as high quality as what's been listed above. And the question was about writing that "blew you away." Why shouldn't the greats be listed? Besides, until this post nobody has even so much as suggested that fantasy/sci-fi is inferior to the classics. Your post comes off as pretty insecure, frankly.