Old but, I hope, still good. Actually your timing is pretty great -- I just finished re-reading it on Sunday. I don't know German so I've never had the pleasure of reading it in the original, but the English is excellent. This time around I read the Esperanto translation, which seemed to come off well. I don't care how old you are or what language you read it in, when Atreyu's horse Artax dies, you man the fuck up and cry. I accidentally read that bit while I was walking down the street and nearly had a public breakdown.

You're right about the relationship between the human world and Fantastica. I've never understood it very well, and it's great to hear someone else's insights.

This time around Mr. Coreander's bit at the end of the book resonated more strongly with me. The Childlike Empress is the origin, a creative source rather than a character herself. Bastian met her in The Neverending Story, but Coreander has met her in other books he's read. Although anyone can meet her by going to their own Fantastica, fewer and fewer people do. Their engagement with fiction and imagination is through lying -- people get obsessed with reality and forget to feed their souls with art. Ende rings a similar bell in Momo, where everyone becomes obsessed with saving time rather than enjoying it, and they become grey husks of their former selves.