I won't even mention the movies.
This book was the first fantasy book I ever read, and I was starved for anything fantastic. This book was fantasy times x. The plot involves a green-skinned (yes green-skinned) Indian named Atreyu going on an epic quest to find a savior of the realm, Fantastica (yes, Fantastica). He is aided by the luck dragon Falkor, whom he saves from the venom of a freaky multi-bug bug called appropriately enough Ygramul the Many. He goes on way more adventures than the character in the movie I wasn't supposed to mention does, and his adventures are, well, better.
Even the ones that are sort of in the movie are only shadows of what they are in the book. His meeting with the werewolf Gmork, my favorite scene by far, is done totally differently. He finds Gmork, the giant wolf who's been stalking him since the start, chained in the abandoned Spook City. The monsters there have just gone and chucked themselves into the Nothing (looking into it is supposed to be like going blind... try seeing that in your mind's eye). Gmork has been left to wait for his death as the Nothing moves in on the town. It's already been surrounded by the Nothing, so now it's just a little island waiting to get swallowed up.
Atreyu is alone and has lost AURYN, the Gem he was given to help him on his mission. Atreyu sees Gmork, who is dying of hunger and is weak, a shadow of his former giant self. He approaches the werewolf and talks to it, finding out a rather disturbing fact: whenever a Fantastican gets swallowed by the Nothing, they go to the real world as lies. This sucks, obviously, and Atreyu isn't too pleased about it. Gmork however is rather amused, and tells Atreyu his story. He is a being from another realm, come to this one to stop a young man on a quest. Then Atreyu does something rather dumb: he tells Gmork who he is. The werewolf laughs morbidly for a while, "the most horrible sound Atreyu had ever heard." Then he dies. Atreyu walks up to it and touches its head... suddenly the dead jaws lunge out and grab Atreyu's leg, holding him fast as the Nothing approaches. Atreyu waits to die...
I won't tell you how the scene ends. It's a lot longer than I write it, and much better written. The whole book is excellent, with only a very few dumb parts. The end for instance is rather weak compared to the rest.
But it's worth a read if you're bored of modern fantasy and want to read something that wasn't inspired by Tolkien.