TheBoost said:

I think the story in the Elenium is less predicatble, and the world is more sophisticated and compex.

I had the same thought. I read the Elenium and the Tamuli first, as a friend lent them to me. Then I went back and read the Belgariad. I enjoyed it, but it never gripped me in the same way as the other too did.

I think reading the later trilogies spoilt the Belgariad for me a little really, as I was expecting the more accomplished writing Eddings did later on. It was for this reason that I could never bring myself to read the Mallorean. I did like Belgarath the Sorceror though, but Polgara the Sorceress just wasn't the same, as I never really found Polgara a likable character.

TheBoost said:

But its hard to get over our first love, and I read Belgariad in the 6th grade and it changed my life (which is admitedly easy to change in the 6th grade).

Understood! :-)