I’m glad someone mentioned Carl Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World. Although not his best writing, it’s an excellent guide to critical thinking. I’d also recommend Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot which is the sequel to Cosmos (of course, Cosmos is best appreciated in video form). His fiction Contact is well worth it too…better than the movie.
Did the book-on-tape for this one. It was read by the author who did a good job giving the story a personal touch.
The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars,Green Mars,Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson is fantastic! Well, the first two are; the third drags just a bit in the middle, but you’ll want to read it after the first two.
Also, it’s been said several times, but will chime in again: anything by Orson Scott Card, especially Ender’s Game.
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman
sorry to revive an old thread, but this didn’t fit into the ongoing book topics
Just wanted to recommend one of my favorites…
Soul of the Night by Chet Reymo. Professor of astronomy. Naturalist. Skeptic with a spiritual eye. Excellent author. His writings (several books and weekly articles in the Boston Globe) show how deep a scientific appreciation of the universe can be.
Well, I’m glad to see that someone mentioned the Mars trilogy, that was great.
I’d like to thank everyone for their great suggestions, I’ll be hitting B&N tonight.
Here are some of my favorites…
Michael Crichtons books…
If you’re a WWII history buff, The Rise and Fall of the Third Riech
I really like most of the books by …what is his name…
oh yeah James Michner The Source
This may sound strange, even though I’m an atheist, I read The Bible. There are some good stories and it’s great to help understand Christianity a little bit more.
Have a great day.
p.s.
oh yeah, read the Harry Potter books too!
Missed this thread the first time around, so I’ll just chime in late with my selection and a few comments.
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Hated it–think Holden Caulfield all grown up with an equally whinny and morose son.
The Monkeywrench Gang by Edward Abby: Good call and a thumbs up for just about anything by Abby.
My own choice for a must read is A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. It’s billed as a nature book, but it’s much more than that. Beautiful, lyrical, tragic, thought-provoking, and ultimately humbling.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike *
**
What does ego have to do with whether he’s a good writer or not? And if I only read serious novelists, I wouldn’t have enjoyed all those Robert Ludlum novels growing up.
I’d like to recommend “The First World War” by John Keegan. It is a facinating and elegant history of WWI.
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevetsky
The Bible
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett
anything by Peter S. Beagle
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
Mythology – Edith Hamilton
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
I have to suggest:
The Professor and the Madman
I can’t remember who wrote it, and I’m too lazy to look it up. It made me buy the OED.
The Stand, by Stephen King.
Swan Song, by Robert R. McCammon
The Kent Family Chronicles, by John Jakes
And I Don’t Want to Live this Life, by Deborah Spungeon (Nancy Spungeon’s mother; Nancy was the girl murdered by Sid Vicious.)
Those are just a very few I recommend. I could go on for days. 
Sheri
In addition to many already listed:
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Postcards, E. Annie Proulx
Stones From the River, Ursula Hegi
The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
Chesapeake, James Michener
The Source, James Michener
Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan
Smila’s Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg
Anything by Ann Tyler (The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons)
Many good books have been recommended. I won’t repeat them except to say that Catch-22 is my most favorite book of all time.
My two favorite new books (both still available only in hardcover) are Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. The latter was just awarded the National Book Award for non-fiction, so it’s not just me. Read these books!
Fiction:
The Phantom Tollboth by Norton Juster
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Non-Fiction:
Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker
Catcher in the Rye was a terrible book, firmly agree. But…
Albert Camus - The Stranger/Outsider
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Robert Persig - Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
William Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Jostein Gaarder - Sophies World
Charles Darwin - Voyage on the Beagle
Douglas Hofstadter - Godel, Escher, Bach…Eternal Golden Braid
Victor Papanek - Green Imperative
Bryan Appleyard - all
Jung Chang - Wild Swans
Harper Lee - To kill a mockingbird
Keri Hulme - The Bone People
Friedrich Nietzsche - all
Gabriel Garcia Marquez -all
Milan Kundera - Unbearable lightness of being
Brett Easton Ellis - American Psycho
Irving Welsh - Trainspotting
All these books moved me in some strong emotive way, whether with love, hate, anger, depression etc…
And many, many more. How do you define a favourite?
BTW, you can get free books on-line here for those who don’t know: www.promo.net/pg
I’m astounded that no one has mentioned Watership Down. I loved it and reread it often.
E.R. Chamberlin’s The Bad Popes. Some of the interesting parts of the history of the Papancy.
Thanks everybody, I have a birthday coming up and this thread has filled up my wish list nicely! (though a Playstation 2 would be good too.
“The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton” has been out of print from some time. The original three Gil the Arm stories have been collected into FLATLANDER, which also include two of Niven’s latest pieces, which suck just as bad as most of his post-1980 Known Space stuff (every try making it through Niven’s THE RINGWORLD THRONE? Well, it’s “Niven’s” if he actually wrote it. It was possibly ghostwritten)
UnuMondo
Well I guess it all depends on which genre you belong to, but I throw out a list for everybody.
"Wise Blood" by Flannery O’Connor. That’s good for a nice blasphemous laugh.
"Slaughter House Five" by Kurt Vonnegut. A nice little riddle for the average man/woman’s mind.
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King.
Any Tom Clancy novel, as always. Also, don’t hesitate to pick up an Ernest Hemingway book if you see it at the library. I’ve read about three or four of them, and I haven’t been disappointed yet.
And another note, look in any Literature book you can find or look on the internet for “A Shocking Accident”. I don’t recall the author’s name, but it is a hilarious short story.
I’d reccommend anything by Laurell Hamilton…good fantasy stuff
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
The cross-country journey to end all road stories. A masterpiece.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
I’m a huge fan Doctor Gonzo, and out of the stuff of his I’ve read, his drug riddled account of his savage journey to the heart of the American dream is his best.
Hell’s Angels by HUnter S. Thompson
Thompson’s account and reportings of the year he spent with the Hell’s Angels before getting the crap beaten out of him. Informative on the lives and habits of the Hell’s Angels, but also about the press, attitudes in the class structure, society, and more.
The Stand by Stephen King
My favorite book of all time. Stephen King’s masterpiece about the apocalypse is almost a satiracal study of society. King is exceptional in his descriptions and character developement. Hell, just about everything in this book is excellent.
1984 by George Orwell
Orwell’s terriying vision. Should be required for everyone everywhere.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Perhaps the prototype for the road story, a great read and story that still is to this day.
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pillegi
The biography of Henry Hill (later made famous in GoodFellas). Great look into mob life.
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck’s first book is great, dark, funny satire on the world in which we live today. Made famous through the excellent film adaptation.
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Although Fight Club is more widely known, mostly due to the movie, this is possibly better. This is Chuck’s wild and dark look at religion, faith, and undercooked culinary delacacies. Very dark and perhaps not for the faint of heart.
Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbit.
I’m with Dangerosa and hardygrrl. The Robber Bride is one of my all-time favorite books, and I just finished Byatt’s The Biographer’s Tale. Now I want to go to Norway!
I also heartily recommend To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s surprising how much fun it is when you’re not reading it for school.
For fun non-fiction, I really like Antonia Fraser’s histories, especially The Wives of Henry the Eighth. It’s a fascinating read.
I have to confess that I really don’t get John Irving. I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and started Ciderhouse Rules. I think he’s okay, but I’m not sure why he’s so beloved. My main impression is from the one and a half books that I read was that he was extremely creeped out by women and sex.