Damn, I've always been sad that as an intrepid middle schooler I tried to read that book but put it down about 1/3 of the way through. Wish I had stuck with jt.
Never too late to go back to read it now! I haven't re-read it in years, but Watership Down, The Forever War, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were three of the books/series I read as a kid that really shaped me, at least in tastes for media!