Stroud's Top 10

Author Jonathan Stroud -- whose novel The Amulet of Samarkand I'm finally reading now -- rattles off his 10 favorite fantasy books for The Guardian:

1. Grettir's Saga, by Anon (1320s)
2. Monkey, by Wu Ch'eng-en (16th century)
3. Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift (1726)
4. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
5. War in Heaven, by Charles Williams (1930)
6. The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien (1937)
7. Titus Groan/Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake (1946/1950)
8. The Dying Earth, by Jack Vance (1950)
9. The Ogre Downstairs, by Diana Wynne Jones (1974)
10. The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter (1979)

Follow the link for Stroud's explanations.