OH! One more idea: “Of Mice and Men.” Really good, easy read and it’s a classic!
Man, I’m a huge reader, and “Cold Mountain” has intimidated me so far – I feel like I oughta want to read it, but I don’t.
Page-turning sci-fi recommendations:
“The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” (Heinlein) – first book I ever stayed up all night reading.
The “Foundation” trilogy by Asimov.
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, as suggested above, and its sequel, “Speaker for the Dead,” though I couldn’t get more than 20 pages into the third book.
Also by Orson Scott Card, and also really cool, but more fantasy than sci-fi: “Seventh Son.”
I second the suggestion that you just go to the drugstore and read a few book jackets until you find one that you think, “Hm, that sounds good.” Don’t tackle anything too long to start, or you’ll just get frustrated and/or intimidated.
Harry Potter. Great for a novice reader.
Bingo. They are have an easy-to-read style, are amusing, and should be easy to get at the library. Even my 60+ year old parents have gotten into them, and read them all in a few weeks time. My Dad usually reads things like “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” and Clancy, and my mom likes ponderous romances and Science Nonfiction. Indeed, she stayed up all night reading one. Maybe those Christian Fundametalists have something about these books! :eek:
They even got me, the hard-core SF reader, roped into them. Like I need another addiction in my life. :smack:
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
Excellent book and a fairly quick read.
There are so many! Your public library has a better selection than the supermarket racks, and is free, but you do have to return the books. 
What can I suggest?
For naval adventure, look at the Hornblower books by C. S. Forester, or the Aubrey and Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian.
SF should include The Mote in God’s Eye and King David’s Spaceship by Niven and Pournelle. Both are set in the same universe, with good hard SF and characters you can care about. For something quite a bit more surreal, try anything by Cordwainer Smith - The Instrumentality of Mankind is a collection of short stories set in his future history, and he did novels as well.
My fantasy pick (besides some of those mentioned above) would be the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories by Fritz Lieber - great sword-and-sorcery adventure.
For non-fiction, Stephen Jay Gould has several collections of short essays on biology and evolution, and Martin Gardner has collections of his Mathematical Games columns from Scientific American, mostly on games, puzzles, and magic tricks.
Wow! It looks like alot of great sugestions here. I think I’ll go with some of the above advice and start off with the page turners first and then go from there.
Right now my bigest fear of starting a novel is, I’ll get halfway through it then find out I don’t like it. Its like jeez! what a waste of time!
To me, Cold Mountain was a page turner - I couldn’t put it down. I honestly don’t understand WordMan’s criticisims. It has a lot of action, is only about average novel size (400 - 500 pages), and is written in accessable prose.
Maybe you should save it for later, though.
One suggestion has caught my eye: Watership Down. It ‘s a “kid’s book” … but it is much better than that. It’s short, easy to read, and speaks volumes about the human condition. (My initial impresiion? Rabbits? this is about freakin’ RABBITS? - but then it hooked me). Start with that. In all seriousness everyone should read Watership Down, regardless of age.
Another thing, as much as I love Tolkien, his prose is very slow and has a tendency to accentuate minor details. Those things are beautiful when looked at in the overall story, but I would even save The Hobbit till you got your reading legs under you. The prose is kind of slow and meant to mimic an historic tale.
Steer clear of the Left Behind series. They are appallingly written and turgid.
Cold Mountain is wonderful but I found it unbearable to read and never finished it