"When he eats his first Brownie. "

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Yes, we have them here.

Perhaps surprisingly, I haven't read any of the others, though I'm told I will be reading Harry Potter, soon after my wedding if not before then. I've only read summaries of Catcher in the Rye, but those led me to feel much as you did after reading it: The prose may be good, the craft of authorship, but in terms of themes and plot it's not as noteworthy to be now that so many Salinger wannabes have produced clones dealing with defining oneself, rebellion and alienation.

I don't like to use the term "religious" because it carries a mountain of connotation, so much so that I was just yesterday having to work around it with a good friend, after a fellow Christian and I had discussed our shared loathing of megachurches (even if "selling Jesus" could be defended, going for profit, volume and market share could not. ) In that Mr. Pullman and I would, ironically, almost certainly agree; I have what I consider a strong and deep faith I wish were stronger and deeper, but to a tragic degree it's despite rather than because of organized "Churches" for Christianity. In my book (literally) the Christian Church is the Body of Christ, and He is the only Head; there's probably a reason why Paul said that (I think it has to do with the rest of that chapter, where he categorically and explicitly condemns factionalism within the Church. ) It's somewhat telling that the Church Fathers (not to mention Christ) were regularly criticized for condoning or ignoring things the Sanhedrin heirarchy just as regularly condemned, and so much of the "official" Christian heirarchy seems to do the same thing today.

Where I take exception to His Dark Materials is that rather than writing a solid fantasy series for the sake of entertainment and edification, that just happens to have an agenda as well, Pullman seems to have simply written a series that's no more or less than a counter offer, an attempt to give adolescents "both sides" of a story that has >6 billion facets at last count. Consequently, even though I've never read a word of the series, despite the fact it's close enough I can pick out on a shelf from where I sit, I haven't even a faint desire to even skim it. That's hype for ya.
Oh, and in case you missed it, I am Tangent Man; they just show up around me.