Growing up with Books

In my elementary school if  we read 100 books or a specific number of pages (depending on the grade level) during the year we got a reading award for it, which included a medal and a book. These are the books I earned for each year. Some I don't read very much anymore. But they are good books, and I still have them.
This week I reread The View from Saturday by E. L. Konisburg. It was at least the third time I read it, once when I got it in fifth grade, once the summer after I graduated High School, and then now. Among other things this is what I wrote about it when I read it after High School "I still don't really understand it....."
Which I found funny because this time when I had finished I thought, "Oh, I get it." I would have never picked this book on my own, but because it was a gift it came into my life, and I'm glad of it.
There is something special about books that you grow up with. That you have read throughout your life, and they are still good. Maybe that is why my brother and sister have said that there are several series every kid should grow up with. I've grown up with this one.
The list we have at present of such important series are:
Laura Ingall's Wilder
Narnia (I got a copy of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in 4th grade).
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings