Books J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hobbit. These are classic for those interested in some of the roots of 20th century English fantasy. If you really like them, try the Silmarilion but it's a tough one to get through. There's also the Unfinished Tales and piles of other posthumously published works. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, etc. I loved Ender's Game. Speaker for the Dead was pretty good too. I couldn't get into Xenocide and stopped there. I keep meaning to pick up Ender's Shadow but haven't. I hear it's good. Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash is a great geek book. Cryptonomicon is long but a good read, especially if you're into historical fiction related to WWII. I recall liking Zodiac as well, though it's not on the fundamentals list. Beware the Stephenson premature ending syndrome. Some people hate it, it doesn't really bother me. Carl Hiaasen - He writes awesome mysteryish books that take place in Florida. Very weird characters and usually very funny. Some of his best are Tourist Season, Double Whammy, Skin Tight, Native Tongue, and Stormy Weather. Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe is a great book about physics in general that focuses on quantum and string theory. It's written for a layperson and is very easy to follow even without multiple post-doctoral degrees in quantum chromodynamics. Mitch Albom - Tuesdays With Morrie. OK, it's sort of depressing but I thought it was great. Short read. John Steinbeck - If you only read one book of his it should be The Winter of Our Discontent. Possibly one of the best books ever written. Of Mice and Men is good and a quick read as well. Patrick Suskind - Perfume is one of the more disturbing books I've ever read. Fantastic though. Ken Follett - The Pillars of the Earth is an amazingly detailed historical fiction about the building of a cathedral in England in the 12th century. It follows the involved parties through the decades it takes to build it. Apparently a sequel called World Without End is scheduled to come out in late 2007. Vernor Vinge - One of the greatest current sci-fi writers. Read A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep (in that order I suggest) if you don't read anything else. The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge is a great collection of his short stories. Fast Times at Fairmont High is a great novella at the end of this that spawned Rainbows End recently which I have not yet read. George R. R. Martin - He's in the process of writing the Song of Ice and Fire series. It's like the Wheel of Time series but doesn't suck. Book four of seven has recently been published. This is awesome fantasy that reads more like historical fiction at times. Highly recommended. C. S. Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia. Yes it's thought of as a kids series but it's pretty good writing and good stories. They're quick reads too. If you have problems with Christianity, ignore all the allegory. Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and all the follow on books are awesome comedic sci-fi. Start with Hitchhiker's and make your way through The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Keep going until you get annoyed. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a really good and often under-rated book as well. Herbert Yardley - The American Black Chamber is a first person account of the United States cryptologic effort pre-WWII. Very interesting. Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation is a short read that addresses the fundamentalist Christians of America. You may not fully agree with what Harris says but it's a really interesting read. Jessica Mitford - The American Way of Death Revisited explains how the funeral industry works in the US. Pretty eye opening if you've never had to deal directly with it. Worth reading, especially so you know what's going on when you lose someone close to you. Randall Kennedy - Nigger explores the history of the word and how it's evolved over the last centuries. David McCullough - He's written some great biographies of historical figures and other "narrative histories". John Adams is a well written history of pre- and post-Revolutionary America. I've heard 1776 is good but haven't read it. J. K. Rowling - Either you love Harry Potter or you don't. Read the first and second books, see if you like it. Steven Pinker - The Language Instinct. OK, I haven't read this yet, but everyone tells me it's really good. So... go for it. Arthur C. Clarke - He wrote a lot. Check out 2001 and if you like that start exploring his works. The Rama series is also really good. Rendezvous with Rama was a good read. Carl Sagan - Contact is a wonderful "hard" sci-fi book. If you've seen the movie, keep in mind that the book is very different and in my opinion much better. The movie was good, but the book is great. Isaac Asimov - Where to begin? Asimov was easily my favorite sci-fi author when I was a kid and I still love his universe. The Foundation series is by far the best that he wrote. The Robot series and the Empire series are also very good and tie together with Foundation. I, Robot is great short stories (ignore the movie). Some of his other works like the Azazel series are much less known but good. The End of Eternity is a great stand alone book as well. His lesser known compilations of short stories provide hours of reading. He wrote well over 400 pieces in his life so you can go on for a long time with him Kim Stanley Robinson - The Mars trilogy is a very well written "hard" sci-fi series. I thought Red Mars was great and then stopped in the middle of Green Mars. I need to get back to these at some point. Terry Pratchett - His Discworld series is large but really good sci-fi satire. It's probably worth just starting with The Colour of Magic (the first book) and going in published order. Or go by groupings. I got tired of them eventually but I could see going back and reading some more in the future. Edgar Allen Poe - His collected tales are great. What I would consider 19th century sci-fi. Probably the best way to read him is to get a collection of all his works and page through until you find something that sounds interesting. Chuck Palahniuk - This is the guy who wrote Fight Club. I didn't like the book as much as the movie. However, his book Choke was great. Leonard Wibberley - The Mouse That Roared is a great satire about a small European country that declares war on the US and invades, hoping to lose miserably and be rebuilt by the US liek Japan etc. Awesome. Upton Sinclair - The Jungle is Sinclair's classic about the meat packing industry in the US in the early 20th century. Very eye opening to see what life was like for these immigrants back then. Towards the end he gets pretty heavy on Socialism which may be a bit much for some readers. But definitely worth checking out. Michael Crichton - He's often overrated but his books are often fun and fast reads. Keep in mind much of his "science" is just written to sound like it's real. I personally like Jurassic Park, Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, and Rising Sun. Tom Clancey - I thought The Hunt for Red October was really good. Couldn't get into his other stuff. A little too over the top patriotic for me. Kurt Vonnegut - Some people find him hard to read but I like his stuff. Cat's Cradle was one of the few books I enjoyed reading in my college literature classes. Jean Sammet - Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals is a great book from the late 1960s that you've probably never heard of. It covers computer programming language development up to that point. Very interesting if you like computer history. Simon Winchester - The Meaning of Everything is a great history of the Oxford English Dictionary. Yes, you have to be a total geek to want to read this but it's fascinating. Robert Bringhurst - If you're an obsessive geek, The Elements of Typographic Style is spectacular. Steven D. Levitt - Freakonomics is a very interesting look at the world using economic principles. Makes you go huh. Ray Kurzweil - I'm still getting into his stuff but so far Fantastic Voyage is really interesting and I can't wait to read The Singularity is Near. Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States covers a lot of the history that you didn't learn in High School. It might make you feel dirty. Peter Irons - Written in the same vein as Zinn's work, this is a detailed history of the Supereme Court and more broadly the foundations of United States law. If you're at all interested in historical law this is highly recommended.