The way I did it was I started reading The Dark Tower, and read other King books in between. I read It, Hearts in Atlantis, and several of his short stories before finishing the series. The Dark Tower ties into several King stories, so it helps to have read his work (Hearts in Atlantis becomes important for the seventh Tower book).

I was actually thinking of reading Patrick Rothfuss due to his association with the Torment kickstarter.
Thanks very much, downloaded and ready to read! :)

That chart is a headache waiting to happen. Let's just say I spotted quite a few, but definitely not all of them.

Oops. Should've used search function :P

Besides Tolkien ? Only Michael Ende - the neverending story.

Or else parodies. Pierre Pelot's "Conar le Barbant" series, or, I've been told, Pratchett stuff.

Just got started on name of the wind.. really liking it so far!

Heard Malazan (sp?) is not bad too!

My personal all time fave is Terry Pratchett.. I would recommend starting with the witches series! Small Gods is also pretty good.

Another fave of mine is the Death Head series by David Gunn..

WIll check out that Pierre Pelot's series soon too!

Not sure if its considered fantasy per se, but Jasper Fforder Thursday Next series, Nursery Crimes and Shades of Gray are all entertaining reads!

Definitely you should check Sir Terry Pratchett's work. Worth a reading... or six.

If you are looking for something more serious, I would recommend The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Wood Beyond The World by William Morris - One the very first fantasy novels.

The Worm Oroborous by E. R. Eddison - Beautiful storytelling with rich characters.

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson - A proto-Lovecraftian tale of a distant future where a neo-feudal society huddles within the Great Redoubt, assailed from without by the Watchers.

The Dying Earth books by Jack Vance - Some of the greatest fantasy ever written. Much of the original D&D magic system was lifted from these novels, incidentally.

Weaveworld and Imajica by Clive Barker - Two stunning works of fantasy that astound with the breadth of the original ideas they contain, and the complex motivations of the many characters.

The Chronicles of Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander and The Sword Of The Spirits books by John Christopher - Young adult fantasy series with engaging characters, written before the fantasy genre became a template to be followed.

I probably had Wheel of Time ruined for me when my mother got me book 7 as a present in my early teens (I had not read any of the other books).

"From the tall arched window, close onto eighty spans above the ground, not far below the top of the White Tower, Elaida could see for miles beyond Tar Valon, to the rolling plains and the forests that bordered the broad River Erinin, running down from north and west before it divided around the whit ewalls of the great island city."

That is the first line of that book, and I don't think I've ever gone beyond that.

Got into a lot of pulpy fantasy stuff as a kid. There was the obvious kids stuff like the Xanth series and Narnia books, but also Tolkien's work, Obernewtyn books, Chrestomanci chronicles, Piers Anthony's Mode Trilogy, his Split Infinity books, the Earthsea books, Spellsinger series, Song of Albion series, The Hounds of Morrigan, etc.

Later came Discworld stuff, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, and even Harry Potter :P.

Nobody mentioned Zelazny's Amber chronicles? Shame on you!

I knew I was overlooking one that I would kick myself for later. This is it. All ten novels together make an amazing, sweeping masterpiece that is truly a classic.

I think a classic trilogy has not been mentioned yet: "Riddle-Master" by Patricia A. McKillip.
Also, while Tad Williams has been named, no one recommended his excellent trilogy "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn".
Finally, Katherine Kurtz*s "Deryni"-Series.

Another classic series yet to be mentioned, the Avalon books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Begin with The Mists of Avalon.

I'm sure they've all been mentioned already, but it doesn't hurt to add my recommendation too:

Raymond E. Feist - Riftwar books, the later ones aren't great but the original few trilogies are great.

Katherine Kerr - Deverry books, excellent (if a bit complicated with multiple timelines). Set in a kind of alternate Celtic Europe, very accurate and just generally well written.

Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn series, excellent books with lots of great ideas.

Terry Pratchett - If you like your fantasy hilarious with a side dose of social commentary.

Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy (and the second Farseer one which I can't remember what it's called) is excellent. Liveship books are good but a tough read, I'd recommend reading the other two first. The Rain Wild Chronicles are also great, and she's got a new series about to come out. I wasn't keen on the Soldier Son trilogy.

Tolkien - I know you mentioned Tolkien in the OP, but I can strongly recommend reading his other works if you haven't already. The Silmarillion in particular is an awesome work of fantasy.

Trudi Canavan - The Black Magician trilogy is pretty good.

Joe Abercrombie - Very good dark fantasy (much better than GoT imo), one of the best new authors I've found in a while.

Micheal Scott - Tales of the Bard, an Irish author, not sure how easy it is to get hold of his books, but if you can the Tales of the Bard are brilliant (first fantasy books I ever read). His young adult stuff isn't bad either (Windlord, Earthlord and Firelord)

Probably loads more I'm forgetting too. Hope that helps :)


Edit: Oh, and as far as Jordan's Wheel of Time goes... it's not quite as bad as people are suggesting.. just very long winded and bloated. I will someday have to read the last few books to find out what happened (but it means re-reading all the others so I remember what is going on, so it may be a while before I do)