Oh, German fantasy ftw! You made me want to read Moers now! I have Käpt'n Blaubär on my shelf, but I stalled on it a little bit, because I was trying to tackle it in the original German. I hadn't heard about the other one by him...

I can't tell you the number of times I listened to Die unendliche Geschichte as a kid (books on tape). It's one of my favorite beginnings of a book ever. I just loved Bastian hiding in the school attic and getting lost in that story. So amazing. And yes, the movie really just can't compare.