I've just finished The Windup Girl, which I had been putting off for some time. It was, quite simply, the most astounding and breath-taking science fiction book I've ever read. I loved it.

However, my problem is that I buy books compulsively. Mostly hard copies, but recently I bought a Kindle and buy the odd e-book or two. I have literally hundreds of books on my "to read" list.

One near the top is A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I recently read her phenomenal Wolf Hall and was blown away by her skills as a story teller. I'm a bit of an armchair historian, and I'm particularly interested in the French Revolution (amongst other things), so I'm very excited by the prospects this book holds. If it's anything like Wolf Hall then I'm in for a very particular treat.

Also near the top lies Quantum - Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality, Manjit Kumar's much lauded recent history of the emergence of quantum mechanics. I very much enjoyed other tangentially related books on this topic, including the wonderful The Making of the Atomic Bomb and The Fly in the Cathedral, so this should be good fun and educational to boot.

Having read and loved Everitt's biography of Cicero, I'm very much looking forward to his biographies of Augustus and Hadrian.

I'm listening to an audio-book version of The Count of Monte Cristo on my iPod, which I find rather enjoyable. I've only got through the first half dozen chapters and it's already taken a few hours, so this looks to be a nice, long-term and periodic treat for when I have time alone in the car.

Cronin's The Passage keeps piquing my interest, but I was foolish enough to buy it in that lamentable format, the much cursed "trade paperback", so the thing is a behemoth. The size puts me off. I wish I had waited for a regular paper-back edition. As it is, it sits there on my bookshelf, flanked by the collected works of Alan Furst (what a wonderfully evocative writer of WWII espionage!!) and a bunch of much recommended, but as yet unread, fantasy including The Darkness that Comes Before by Bakker, The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss and Physiognomy by Ford.

Books I have ordered and am eagerly awaiting, and which shall go straight to the top of the TBR list (no doubt to be replaced by next month's purchases) include Orlando Figes's highly regarded history of The Crimean War, Rosen's history of steam The Most Powerful Idea in the World and Stacy Schiff's contentious biography of Cleopatra.

A bit of a mixed bunch, all up, I'd say.

We have pretty similar tastes.

I'd start by suggesting a few more of Orwell's - Down and Out, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Homage to Catalonia.

Hemingway - There is another thread about him today, but I say go with the short stories to start. This collection is superb.

I got into Russian lit right around the time I finished all the books you mentioned. Crime and Punishment or some of Dostoevsky's many short stories could be a gateway into a whole new literature for you.

Some contemporary authors that are excellent - Margaret Atwood (start with The Handmaid's Tale), Salman Rushdie (writes incredibly vibrant and creative prose), Don Lee (I loved both books I've read from this newish author), Joyce Carol Oates (prolific and profound), Alan Lightman, Umberto Eco, Junot Diaz.

Great non-fiction - Read the rest of Jared Diamond's stuff, it's all great. The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Tuchmann, a classic of how bad decisions led to downfalls in civilization. A Sideways Look at Time, a mildly rambly polemic on the politics of time in modern culture. The Closing of the Western Mind, a survey on how Christianity came to dominate the west. Power Faith and Fantasy about America's history of mucking about in the middle east. A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, who write beautifully about the natural world, and is also a solid poetess (if you're into that). And I'm sure someone is going to mention Bryson. He's good too.

First, I don't really recommend mass market paperbacks, get a trade if you can, they're much more comfortable to read. The collections published by Del Rey are really good, and you can know you have some continuity (and aren't buying the same stories) because all the covers are works of either HR Geiger or the Polish (or Hungarian?) surrealist whose name escapes me. I can't remember if these are only HP Lovecraft or if they also include Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, and his other contemporaries. Purists detest Derleth because he took the Mythos in his own direction, but his stories are still very good, very different from Lovecraft (which is refreshing when it comes to his proteges and colleagues), and without his work none of Lovecraft's stories would've survived into today--he founded Arkham House dedicated to publishing all Cthulhu Mythos stories.

The Penguin Classics collections are really nice as well.

An individual book that I cannot recommend more is this one. It is a Barnes & Noble collection of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories, they are much longer (novella-length), very involved, and have a whole mythology unto their own. The scenery and Lovecraft's descriptions of the dreamlands and Antarctic wastes are so engrossing, haunting, and yet beautiful, it is difficult to put down. I have read very few stories with such intensely vivid imagery, and his dream cycle stories do not disappoint.

As a fellow Lovecraft fanboy, welcome to a literary world that will consume you. If you are interested, one of my firsts forays into Lovecraftian literature was The Colour Out of Space, which somehow made me physically ill while I read it one morning as a young kid (I was probably 14 at the time, spending a summer with my dad and I was regularly up till 4 or 5 am reading Lovecraft's stories and playing the wonderful MUD over telnet).

Here is a link to an online collection of Lovecraft's work. I, too, prefer books to reading online, so I completely understand.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is a great urban fantasy story that takes place in the unseen world below London and includes some magic, adventure and a great mystery.


If you haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia try those. After you get past the Christian allegories in the first book the series is enjoyable. If you have read them check out His Dark Materials. Another great book that has been called the atheists' response to Narnia.

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station would be a good one too. Definitely darker than the fantasy in Harry Potter but well written and a great story.

The Hunger Games trilogy has been mentioned a few times and is enjoyable. It is more Science Fiction than fantasy but is a great dystopian story. Written for YAs, like Harry Potter, but enjoyable for just about anyone.They're making a Hunger Games movie now so you'll be able to say you read it back before it was cool.


Edit: Forgot to mention The Dark Tower Series. A great series by Steven King that combines fantasy, western, science fiction and some horror. That sounds like a hodgepodge but the series manages to walk the line so well you end up staying awake until 2am reading to find out what happens next.

For a quick read: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Great story, hilarious, lots of layers, if you want to go looking for them. Fun read even if not.

Two excellent novels that you might identify with. Both long, but fantastic:

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Novel about a young officer in the Vietnam war (around your age), based on the author's experiences. Great book, long, but very engaging and entertaining read.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts: Just go to the amazon page, can't do it justice here, fantastic book.

A cool part about these is that each could be considered a "Roman a clef" (should be some accents there), at least loosely, as both are based to some degree on actual events in the author's lives. Though liberties are certainly taken, still neat to remember.

Ah, I love non-fictin as well. Though most of my favorites are more science oriented, there should be a few on here that pique your interest.

• Salt: A World History - A fascinating history of humanity's favorite mineral. Wars have been fought over it, it sustained whole economies ... you'll be surprised to learn just how much of human history has been influenced by salt.
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything - One of my favorite books. Bryson tells the story and history of science through amazing discoveries and stories about the quirky people who made them.
  
• Homage to Catalonia - A mostly auto-biographical account of George Orwell's time fighting for the communists in the Spanish Civil War.
  
• Capital: Vol. 1 Marx's seminal work and a logically sound criticism of capitalism. Whether or not you agree with his proposed solutions, his criticism is spot on. Depending on how leftist you are, you may have already read The Communist Manifesto. It's a nice introduction to Marx's ideas, but you should really go straight to the source and just read Capital.
  
• Why We Believe What We Believe - The neurology of belief, what could be more interesting? The authors go into great detail on how belief happens at the neurological level, as well as summing up nicely all sorts of findings from differing fields relating to belief. The most interesting part is the research the authors themselves conducted: fMRI scans of people praying, Buddhist monks meditating, Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and an atheist meditating.

There are some really good suggestions here, but a couple of books that were good entry points for me haven't been mentioned yet:

Sync by Steven Strogatz.

How The Universe Got Its Spots by Janna Levin.

Both of these books are rather specific interest type books, but they're both written so well that they are easy entry points into more reading later.

Edit: Ooh ooh I forgot about Plagues and Peoples. A great read that really makes you rethink global history, along the lines of (and drastically predating) another great book about cultural history Guns, Germs and Steel. Both of these books are kind of a mix of history, sociology and science, so it might not be what you're looking for though.

In the Heart of the Sea tells the true story that inspired Moby Dick, and is a great read.

If you like non-fiction, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage and The Perfect Storm are also very good.

I actually found that reading the pertinent sections of the Ulysses guide before each chapter helped.

I liked the Molly section of the book. But otherwise Ulysses really seemed to me to be essentially a written collage or mix tape, in that Joyce strung together so much of what he'd studied and called it a book. Which I don't mean as a slur against mix tapes or collages.

Did reading Ulysses give me insights into existence, as any great work of art should? Hard to say, though that last section was pretty good--not because of what all Joyce did, but because of the sheer disconnect between Bloom and Molly.

Probably I'd recommend reading at least half a dozen other books instead. Heck, Shantaram was more important to me than Ulysses.

The combination of Shantaram, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and A Fan's Notes taught me a lot more than did Ulysses, and they were far more fun, interesting, and quick to read.

I am just reading the 'Locke Lamora' series: a gentleman thief in a world with quite mighty magicians but very well balanced.

For those who like a fantastic story I can also recommend Jasper Fforde. In his world the characters of all books have a personal life when nobody reads it at the time (and sometimes even then). Characters in a book that don't have a name are only blurred, also in their personal life ;-)

And of course Niffenegger, "The time traveller's wife'" is excellent.

It is good but I almost got annoyed by the amount of nostalgia/references it makes. I kind of wonder how much I would have liked it had it not thrown around all the references. It was entertaining though. I think I liked Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson better to be honest (except the ending).

Bonus for some: I got the audio book from audible read by Wil Wheaton...so if you're a nerd that might be your cup of tea.

Yes, Diamond Age is such a great spiritual successor to Snow Crash. Where Snow Crash has that frantic pace and hyper compressed events, Diamond Age takes its time and describes every molecule of the beauty in the book's events. These two works are such great testaments to Stephenson's skill because it's obvious he worked really hard to make them describe similar themes, but also compliment each other.

Have you seen the new covers? I like them, they do a good job of presenting them as companion pieces.

Snow Crash

Diamond Age

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Neil and Terry are actually friends. I read the story of how they met once but I can't quite remember all the details. I think they were on the same train to London or something. Neil is also friends with Tori Amos which is kind of interesting. He has sequestered himself away to her different homes in the past so he can quietly write his books. Terry and Neil even wrote a book together (Good Omens), to be honest it's not my favorite but I would definitely recommend you take a look at Neil Gaiman.

Oh... one more, you should read Neverwhere.

If by all the credit you mean JJ's name above Doug's on everything about the book including the book itself.

http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642

JJ loves to have his name on shit, always has, and he loves taking the shared glory when it succeeds.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Came out in August, 2011. Prodigies in the year 2044 get PhD's in pop-culture of the 1980's in order to save the greatest videogame ever made. Best entertainment value I've read since World War Z. I wrote Ernest Cline to tell him how much I loved it, and the man actually wrote me back. Fellow gunters, unite!

Oh, I would definitely NOT start with American Gods. It's good, but it's a bit of a bear to get through at times. Neverwhere or Stardust for Gaiman, for sure. I have a beat up old copy of Neverwhere that tends to live in one of my purses most of hte time. It is one of my very favorite books. You can read the first bit of it for free on Amazon using the "look inside" thingie.

http://www.amazon.com/Neverwhere-A-Novel-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060557818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397008517&sr=8-1&keywords=neverwhere

Oh god I love this question. I've got some fantastic recommendations:

Fantasy Series:

• The Gentleman Bastards Sequence
  

  by Scott Lynch
  Book One: The Lies of Locke Lamora
  
  Simultaneously one of my top 5 favorite fantasy novels, and my favorite Heist story of all time.
  Suspense, Intrigue, Visceral action, and some of the wittiest, best-written dialog I've ever read in fiction make this series simultaneously dark, tense, and hilarious.
  Thank god Lynch was wondering what a swords and sorcery take on Ocean's Eleven would look like, because the thought never occurred to me before this.
  
  

• The Mistborn Trilogy
  

  by Brandon Sanderson
  Get the boxed set. Just do it.
  
  Sanderson is perhaps best known for being chosen to continue the Wheel of Time series after the passing of Robert Jordan; and this is very unfortunate. I would take Mistborn over WoT any day.
  The author's passion seems to be exotic settings, and unique magic systems with a solid set of rules. You get so attuned to what Mistborn's Allomancy can and can't do, that it seems as fundamental as gravity by the end. And speaking of endings, this one is Incredibly well thought out.
  
  -----------------------------
  I've got stuff to do, so I'll cut it off here for now, but seriously, check them out. And Please don't ask me which I'd recommend more, I don't want my head to explode.
  
  More to come, if I'm not too lazy. I'm full of these.

He is the MASTER, I mean it, of the short story. I would say his short stories are much better than his novels. I'm about halfway through his entire short story collection right now ([The Finca Vigia Edition] (http://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Short-Stories-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/0684843323)) and I love it so much. With his short, simple, to the point language it's quite obvious he would do his best work in a shorter format, in my opinion. I have only read two of his books, those being "The Sun Also Rises" and "The Old Man and the Sea", both were phenomenal and I feel like his terse prose brought the novel and especially the short story to new heights.

I absolutely love Snow Crash. Very humorous writing without becoming pure comedy. Great plot. Awesome concepts.

Not related to memoirs, but 'The Book Thief' has been one of the most creative fictional books I have read on the subject of WWII (Holocaust, particularly). It's about a young orphaned girl who lives with her foster parents in Germany before/during WWII. The book is meant for young adults, but I think anyone would appreciate its beauty.

I would either say A General Theory of Love or The Demon-Haunted World are books that I always recommend to people who want to expand themselves.

A General Theory of Love is the perfect message for those who think intelligence and self-mastery means an absence of emotions. For those of us who think being rational means not letting emotions into the decision making process, this book elucidates on why that is not healthy and also why you're probably lying to yourself if you think you are incapable of feeling emotions like "normal" people.

The Demon-Haunted World is a book for everybody. It is a philosophical book written by an astrophysicist using everyday language so nearly anybody can grasp its concepts. It brings the major philosophical question of why within the average person's conceptual grasp, without using any spiritual reasoning. I feel that when more people can contemplate that question, why, without immediately turning to the supernatural and shutting down the mundane, we will be a more level-headed species.

Eh, my two cents. ;-)

Shadow of the Wind is a good suggestion, that popped into my head as well. I'd also say take a look at Lightning Rods. It's got the manic satiric humor you would like, along with some genuine philosophical capital L literature themes she would like. Another one is maybe The Book Thief - this falls more into her category, but I'm willing to bet you'd really like it as well.

I've been on a non-fiction kick myself.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is good. Very funny, very informative.

Packing for Mars and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers both by Mary Roach were also fun to read.

it might be based on the fact that The Book of The New Sun is the greatest fantasy/Sci/fi Novel written since Tolkien. (IMO, of course)

But his other work can be hit or miss. I've found the short stories to be good as is the novel Peace. But if you haven't read Book of the New Sun...1st of all I'm Jealous, and second of all don't even bother with his other works until you've finished it.


Shadow & Claw--1st Book Of The New Sun

I always recommend starting with the Penguin Classics collection The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, which is a handsome, accessible edition of his best short fiction. My favorites are "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Rats in the Walls," and "The Color From Out of Space."

This is an awesome collection for a pretty good price if you want to check it out.

Colour out of Space by Lovecraft

In fact this entire collection: http://www.amazon.com/Cthulhu-Stories-Penguin-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0141182342 is fantastic.

Maybe some Edgar Allan Poe? Start out short with some of his stories. You'd probably like The Cask of Amontillado, it's awesome.

And then there's always The Shining

there is a fascinating nonfiction book called the Poisoner's Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Poisoners-Handbook-Murder-Forensic-Medicine/dp/1594202435) that I enjoyed. It's basically about the birth of modern forensics. Another fun read would be Stiff (http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292456067&sr=1-1), which is also nonfiction about cadavers.

I haven't read that myself, but based on the description and notes elsewhere in the thread I might recommend these:

• the Newton's Cannon series by J Gregory Keyes - probably more serious than Chaos Walking but not nearly so grave as Game fo Thrones (did you like Game of Thrones?)
  
• Just about anything by Terry Pratchett
  
• Early Piers Anthony like A Spell for Chameleon, The Source of Magic, or Castle Roogna
  
• The Expendable series by James Alan Gardner (not the same story as the recent movies)
  
• The Red Lightning series by John Varley
  
• Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein
  
• Snow Crash and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
  
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman
  
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Yes, came in to advocate Replay as well. It's definitely one of my favorite books that I read this year.

I can really recommend two collections;

• The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway -you find it on [amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0684843323) - a collection of his amazing short stories, with background information of his life seen in context with his writing. So you learn a little Hemingway while reading
  
  
• slightly different genre, but I cannot recommend reading original Sherlock Holmes stories enough. You can buy complete Sherlock Holmes relatively cheap, or just start with any of the most known stories.
  
  Furthermore, if you want to add a little style to your bookshelf, buy one of these. they are basically all great reads!
  
  
  

Forget about all the haters. I'm reading this book right now, and it's fantastic. I've studied physics and also read the Richard Rhodes book, and it's a great counterpoint to a more formal history. I really, really love the chapters before he met Jean Tatlock; they're so full of little insights into his life as a "real," working physicist.

Also, my glass of scotch salutes you.

The Knife of Never Letting Go and the rest of the "Chaos Walking" trilogy is an amazing read, with plenty of awesome combat. It also brings up many modern ethical questions. I loved it.

He might also like Ready Player One which I am not quite finished with yet, but has really sucked me in. Even though there are several pop-culture references from the 80s, the reader doesn't need to be familiar with any of them to enjoy the story. I was born in 1983 and was too young to really have experienced much of it, but I'm enjoying the heck out of the book. I believe there is one passage where the main character alludes to masturbating, but content-wise, that's the only thing that a parent might consider questionable that I've come across so far.

Both titles have teenage fighter-type males as protagonists.

A few that came to mind:
The Great Influenza
Autism's False Prophets
1776
The Greatest Show On Earth
Ghost Wars
The Demon-Haunted World

No.

I adored the earlier Dune books, and was excited for the prequels.
The new writing style is very odd, and you can tell when the authors each wrote alternate chapters. Neither of them seemed to grasp the same grand scale and ancient feeling that FH did to the originals. The settings, characters and plot lack any of the mystery, excitement or depth that the originals had. Notwithstanding the Dune universe setting, they aren't great sci-fi books either.

I read the first with mounting despair, I read the second and abandoned the series. I didn't buy the third or any others. Perhaps they improved an astonishing amount in each subsequent release, but it wasn't worth finding out for me.

For ancient world and conflict sci-fi that introduces deep ideas and has interesting prose, try: Gene Wolfe and his Book of the New Sun series: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book/dp/0312890176/ref=pd_sim_b_6

I also like the epic scale of Dan Simmons - Hyperion and Ilium series are good, though quite unlike Dune.

Since I have no idea what kind of books you like I made a short little list of books I generally recommend to people for any reason. All linked to amazon so look for a review or synopsis there.

Let the Great World Spin

The Great War for Civilization

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

Oil!

The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Theodore Rex

Lincoln:A Novel

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why? by Laurence Gonzales

Swimming to Antarctica : Tales of Long Distance Swimming by Lynne Cox

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

I was home for a holiday, and found these laying around my mother's book stash. She recommended all of them and I thoroughly enjoy each one. Although, usually I read fiction. All of these books are intriguing, well-written, and educational. If you never read non-fiction a good place to start is reading Mary Roach. Here is her TED talk about orgasms.

If the author is any good at all you'll pick it up from context without having to think too much about it.

If you like that sort of thing, check out The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. He uses some really wonderful and obscure vocabulary to begin with, and is inventing an entirely new world at the same time. Half the time you're not sure if he made up a word or if you just don't know it yet.

• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (free ebook version published under Creative Commons license).
  
  
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, although it is written to hit a nerve with those who remember the 80's I'd still classify it as "Young-Adult" (or maybe Young-Adult for Adults).
  
  
• This Time of Darkness by H.M. Hoover. A dystopian tale of 2 kids trying to escape from an underground city to freedom, although maybe aimed towards readers younger than YA.

I'm surprised these haven't been mentioned yet:
In The Heart Of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick - The true story behind Moby Dick (and much easier to read).
Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons - Insane true story of a shipwreck, then it gets worse...

Also for fans of non-fiction novels try Longitude by Dava Sobel and Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson - both involve the sea. *edit for some obvious typo's

I second the Ready Player One rec, and I also strongly suggest Replay by Ken Grimwood.

I'm a Stephen King fanatic, and I do agree that the endings are generally disappointing. The thing about King is that his style is incredibly engaging. The short stories have much better endings than the longer works. If you're going to try King, as a tech addict - I suggest you start out with the short story UR.

I'm going to go with Shantaram. Probably one of my all time favorite books, has some of the most beautiful prose ever committed to paper. I'm not really sure why it isn't more well known. Those who have read it seem to gush about it.

Michael Pollan's [The Omnivore's Dilemma] (http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1324994963&sr=8-4)
[Freakonomics] (http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324995084&sr=1-1)
Nathaniel Philbrick In the Heart of the Sea

Agree with others on Erik Larson, Mary Roach and Bill Bryson.

I would recommend:

Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind


Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, or his newest series The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive).

If you made it all the way through Sword of Truth series, you probably will enjoy Jordan's Wheel of Time.

Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora is also very enjoyable.

If you are looking for another big one, enjoy the gritty and dark elements from Martin, Stephen Erikson's Malazan series might be up your alley. The first book is a little difficult to get through, but it picks up after that.

At the Mountains of Madness is my favourite, but it's a longer text and it might not be the place to start, you'd better get used to his style with shorter stories first. Personally I really liked The Colour out of Space. The first book I bought was this one.

Definitely read his short stories. I've got this compilation, and I love it.

Forever Peace - Haldeman

Book of The New Sun/Book of the Long Sun - Wolfe (this is a very rewarding story, but it requires commitment)

Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro

The Sparrow - Russell

Please be aware that these are all fairly dark. Maybe I'm soft, but The Sparrow was one of the roughest books I've read, from a psychological perspective.

I don't hate it, but I quit on Hyperion a quarter of the way in. That seems to be a really popular book around r/scifi anyway. It just didn't grab me.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375842209) I stumbled upon it in the Library and I couldn't put it down. It's a YA book, but it's absolutely amazing.

I'm looking forward to reading S. by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams. It's a book called Ship of Theseus by a mysterious (fictional) author named V.M. Straka. The real story is the correspondence in the margins between a grad student specializing in Straka and an undergrad lit major as they try to uncover the secrets of his life and disappearance. The book comes with all kinds of inserts of things they find during their investigation, like post cards and newspaper clippings. It even includes a decoder ring to decipher one of the chapters of Ship of Theseus.

I can't wait to start it. I've been saving it for vacation.

If you're looking for fairly light, escapist type lit, you might try Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Quick, humorous reads, similar in style to Douglas Adams, but more fantasy than sci-fi.

I'd also suggest the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The Napoleonic Wars + dragons. Again, fairly quick reads and not super heavy, but they're just enjoyable books to escape into for a bit.

World War Z by Max Brooks: Oral history of the zombie war, and surprisingly more thoughtful than you might expect.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Gorgeous book about a German girl during WWII, narrated by Death.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler: Dana has also become unstuck in time. She's a modern black woman who finds herself suddenly transported, over and over, into the time of slavery.

Kushiel's Dart (and the rest of the Kushiel series) by Jacqueline Carey: I don't know if this would be up your alley or not, but it's definitely one of my "islands," as you put it. Be forewarnd that there is explicit BDSM sex within.

Peter S. Beagle's works are another of my "islands." He's one of the most often underrated and overlooked living fantasy authors, IMO. The Last Unicorn is his best known, and it's a thing of beauty. I also really like A Fine and Private Place.

1. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
   
2. 10/10
   
3. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Frame Story
   
4. A poetic epic that is presented in a similar style to that of Chaucher's The Cantebury Tales. Deals with many mature, emotional themes that many science fiction novels tend to shy away from. I highly recommend reading the sequel The Fall of Hyperion immediately after as they could be considered one book in two parts.
   
5. Amazon.com

S. By J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst came out today. It is EXTREMELY gimmicky, kind of like House Of Leaves. So far it is Awesome.

• Breaking The Spell by Daniel Dennett
  
• Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman
  
• The End of Faith by Sam Harris
  
• The Elegant Universe by Briane Greene (about string theory)
  
• Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees
  
• Before The Beginning by Martin Rees
  
• Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter
  
• The Demon-Haunted World by Sagan
  

Ahhh, well.. if you're a Pratchett fan than the obvious starting point is Good Omens which is co-authored by the both of them. If you like that I would either go to American Gods if you like the reworking old myths angle or Neverwhere if that 'london' writing feel does more for you. Any way around it you can't go wrong really. I've read everything he's written outside of a few short stories and not a word has been bad.

Was going to mention Omnivore's Dilemma but a few others already have. And as for anything else, you should at least read "The Baloney Detection Kit" from The Demon-Haunted World, if not the whole book. That will make your discussions that much more interesting.

I loved People's History, Salt, The Cheese and the Worms, the Edmond Morris series on TR, Common Women, and Gender and Jim Crow.

Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It explains why there has been such disparity in income and technology between Eurasia and the rest of the world. It touches on most of the topics you said you'd like to learn about.

For a while I was waiting for that one to drop in price on Amazon, but it never happened. It went up, in fact.

There was a time when it was 50% cheaper than it is now. I really wish I had known about it then.

Sometimes you can get it cheaper off B&N.

Example: "S" by JJ Abrams.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/s-j-j-abrams/1115192310?ean=9780316201643

http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404307853&sr=8-1&keywords=j+j+abrams+s


People automatically go to Amazon b/c they overall have lower prices. But sometimes they jack up the prices of certain items b/c they know this. Always shop around.

That being said, $15 or more for even a new ebook is absurd.

EDIT: My example only reflects print copies.

Ever read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex? Not exactly the same kind of adventure, but it fits the disaster bill quite nicely, and I really enjoyed it.

If you enjoyed Vonnegut and Lovecraft, you should try reading The Book of the New Sun, which is a five book series by Gene Wolfe. This series is much better than I had any reason to expect from looking at the cover. It reads like H.P. Lovecraft if he weren't repulsed by everything and actually cared about dialog, and is easily the most rewarding re-readable book I've ever read twice. The language is opaque (the narrator will just assume you know what a balicothere is) and riddled with weird approximations to what is actually going on (because the narrator is probably not being 100% honest), but if you can get into it (it starts a bit slow), the latter half of the series is phenomenal. This author ruined most other science fiction for me.

After Guns, Germs and Steel I read and enjoyed Salt: A World History

In all honesty, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are pretty tough to get into, since they are practically the ur-examples of fantasy, written back when a lot of commercial fiction methodology was still being developed.

When i read a book, I worry first and foremost if I'm entertained, if I am, I'll give it my recommendation, regardless of the flaws. These are the ones I think you'd find best for jumping in with.

YA/Middle Grade Books

• The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner (post-apocalypse)
  
  
• Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan (modern kid finds he's the son of Poseidon)
  
  
• Leviathan/Behemoth/Goliath by Scott Westerfeld] (World war 1 with mechs and genetically engineered animals)
  
  
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (a kid finds a dragon egg and fights the big bad guy. As a warning, it uses the exact same monomyth structure as Star Wars so the similarities are... apt.)
  
  
  Fantasy
  
  
• Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (a gang of thieves try to rob the evil overlord)
  
  
• Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (a brutal war between about a half different factions over who gets the crown. Gets really complex fast so it might not be a great one to start with.)
  
  
• Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (I always say it's Oceans 11 written in the Game of Thrones world)
  Discworld by Terry Pratchet (I'd recommend not starting at the beginning.)
  
  
  Sci-Fi
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (it's Ender's Game. You must read this)
  
  
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi (Not sure how to pitch this. It's space marines fighting everyone)
  
  
• The Sector General Series by James White (It's like House, but in space with aliens. Not without flaws but very underrated in my view)
  
  
  Urban Fantasy
  
  
• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (a hard boiled private eye who is also a wizard)
  
  
• Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia (Band of mercenaries hunt monsters. The author is very libertarian/right wing so if you can't stand that, you might not like the books. The kindle edition has to be bought from the baen.com bookstore)
  
  
• Grimnoire Chronicles by Larry Correia (1930's with magic, zeppelins, etc Same warning as above, but it's more subdued here.)
  
  
  Thrillers/Suspense
  
  
• Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (even though I think Brown really needs to improve his writing style, he still can get the books going pretty intensely)
  
  
• Jurassic Park, Timeline, Congo, etc by Michael Crichton (a bit tougher reads since they're pretty scientific, but still good stuff)
  
  
• John Grisham's early work such as A Time to Kill, The Firm, Runaway Jury, etc. (legal thrillers but not hard to get into. I'm not a huge fan of his later stuff)

I really liked Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson...

I've got 95 too! I'm kind of excited about that number simply because it was higher than I thought it would be. There's another dozen or so that are somewhere in my TBR pile.

It looks like the list is from an actual reference book compiled by a bunch of literary critics. This list does seem a little off. I love Jane Austen, but are all her books absolutely must reads? Probably not.

My favorite from this year:

Ready Player One

I would suggest getting into some Lovecraft stories and see what you think about them. HP Lovecraft is usually called the father of modern horror, and for good reason when you read through some of his more famous (and some of his less famous) stories.

I'd say the easiest collection to start with is The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (Penguin 20th Century Classics)
Here's a link for it

If you like that then it's fairly easy to get into his other works, but be aware he is a bit long-winded.

My two favorites are Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff.

Not quite in the same vein—perhaps bordering more on magical realism—is Lewis Shiner's Glimpses.

I would also suggest cross-posting this to r/booksuggestions.

Also, I love historical fiction so a few of my recommendations:

• A - Aztec
  
• B - Book Thief, The
  
• F - First Man in Rome
  
• P - Pillars of the Earth, The

Based on those interests, he might like 1491 or maybe Guns, Germs and Steel, I mean, not to be quick to judge, but my stereotypical image of someone that likes gardening and southern shit would probably be turned off by YA fantasy/action fare and would probably be willing to tackle a harder book that is more close to his interests. AskHistorians has a monster book list but I'm not really familiar with which of those listed are accessible.

Then, of course, there's this list, and now it's like we have homework and the due date is our dying day. Doesn't get much more definitive than that.

I've recently read Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse by Jared Diamond and found them to be quite intriguing.

GG&S

Collapse

Stiff by Mary Roach. It deals with cadavers, which most humans don't like to think about, but the author writes it in a way that balances heavy content with humor.

I'm a big fan of the Penguin paperback collections of his work, put together by Lovecraft expert S.T. Joshi. They're affordable, portable, and contain everything.

http://www.amazon.com/Cthulhu-Stories-Penguin-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0141182342

http://www.amazon.com/Thing-Doorstep-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0142180033/

http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Witch-House-Stories-Classics/dp/0142437956/

Weston's A Rulebook for Arguments is clear and concise.

Heinrichs' Thank You for Arguing is more informal with lots of pop culture references.

Sagan's Demon Haunted World is a paean to science & critical thinking and Whyte's Crimes Against Logic is good as well

1. Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
   
   
2. 9/10
   
   
3. Scifi Epic
   
   
4. Possibly the best science fiction book I have ever read due to it's Canterbury Tales-like format, incredible characterization, emotional impact, thought-provoking ideas, haunting villains and events, and truly epic scale.
   
   
5. Amazon

The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I brought it on a plane. Let's just say it's a good thing I'm in the military and a white male.

Edit: I'm American. And it was in 2003. The TSA was not happy.

I like to tailor my recommendations to what I know about people, so a request like this leaves me a little at a disadvantage. Basically, I believe that there may be no such thing as a universally applicable book, and to that end, whether or not a book is really a "must-read" for any given person depends on the circumstances of that person's life. So what I'm going to give you instead is this: a list of the ten books that I've read that I think (at the moment) have the best chance of having an impact on any random English-speakers life. Make of it what you will.

Ahem. In no particular order:

1. The Bridge at San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder
   
   
2. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
   
   
3. The Spirit Catches You and You Fell Down, by Anne Fadiman
   
   
4. The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius
   
   
5. We With to Inform You that Tomorrow We Well Be Killed With Our Families, by Philip Gourevitch.
   
   
6. The Theban Plays of Sophocles.
   
   
7. The Bell, by Iris Murdoch.
   
   
8. The Book of J, by Harold Bloom and David Rosenberg.
   
   
9. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative, by Herbert Mason.
   
   
10. The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz.

The Age of American Unreason - Susan Jacoby, which is the antithesis of
Slouching Towards Gamorrah - Robert Bork, a horrible horrible book
And for a fun, interesting read:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers - Mary Roach

I just looked this up and here was the top result, Ken Grimwood

Salt: a world history.
My favorite book on world history, all told revolving around salt. It's caused many wars, is responsible for colonization, and has influenced where cities and countries drew their boarders.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0142001619

I only have one:

Replay by Ken Grimwood. A thoughtful book about a man stuck in a groundhog-dayish temporal loop.

I'll toss in Replay by Ken Grimwood. Guy dies of a heart attack to find that he's back in college, with all his previous memories. And then it gets weird. Started reading it in bed one night, wound up reading the whole book in one sitting.

Check out the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.

You may also want to look into getting a Nook or Kindle. You can carry hundreds of books on a light weight device.

You might want to try 1001 Books to read before you die...

Neverwhere

Stardust

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman.

Salt: A World History

http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

Nope, http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/030788743X

Shantaram by Gregory David

This?
http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469

You might get "more" by starting to look at more specialized books. Biographies and non-fiction.

• American Prometheus
  
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
  
• The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320899206&sr=8-1

Dan Simmon's Hyperion

495 Reviews
5 star: (337)
4 star: (82)
3 star: (34)
2 star: (23)
1 star: (19)

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

Get some absinthe and crack open a copy of Hemingway's short stories.

Lately I've been loaning out Replay a lot. It's a page turner that really makes you think about what you're doing with your life.

Work your way through 1001 books to read before you die

The link to the actual book

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

The justification is in a book form. http://www.amazon.com/1001-Books-Must-Read-Before/dp/0789313707/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292706196&sr=8-1

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Good mix of science, politics and history.

1. "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and "Red Seas Under Red Skies" by Scott Lynch
   
   
2. 10/10
   
   
3. Low fantasy
   
   
4. Very entertaining read with entertaining dialogue.
   
   
5. Amazon (The Lies of Locke Lamora)
   
   Amazon (Red Seas Under Red Skies)

Three that come quickly to mind:

A History of the World in Six Glasses

Salt: A World History


The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America

Shake hands with the devil A very detailed account of the Rwandan genocide and the problems the head of the UN mission faced to get the world to try and care about what went on.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

Stories from the survivors of the genocide in Rwanda. Gives another side of the story to compare and contrast against Gen Dallaire's account.

Auschwitz : The Nazis & The 'Final Solution'

The title says it all...

Can't believe this isn't a top comment. If ever there was a category that this book fit in, it would be this one.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

Started reading it and had to stop. Very poignant.

Physics : In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality - John Gribbin

Why Does E=mc2?: (And Why Should We Care?) - Brian Cox , Jeff Forshaw

Physics/History/Politics/Biogaraphy all in one : The Making of the Atomic Bomb -Richard Rhodes

Don't know if this helps at all, but for historical context the story of the whalingship Essex was purportedly part of the inspiration for Moby Dick. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a book written from the perspective of a cabin boy on the Essex. It is one of the most riveting and haunting books I have ever read. This background stuff won't help too much on the literary criticism side of things, but helps put the story into a bit of historical context.

I feel like a traitor to George R. R. Martin, but maybe because I have to wait so long between books. But,

The Gentlemen Bastards series, starting with The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Starts slow, but stay with it. Well worth it.

S. By J.J. Abrams. A mysterious book within a book with margin notes and loose sheets tucked between the pages. It seems to be a non frightening cross between House of Leaves and Griffin and Sabine.

Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees and We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch were both very difficult to read.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusack. All around good read in general, but the really awesome part about this book is that the narrator is Death. That's what has stuck with me about it the most over the years. Turns out, Death has a lot of poignant things to say.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

The Selfish Gene

The Demon Haunted World

If you are not a land lubber you might try In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick or Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft by Alexander McKee.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families: about the Rwanda genocide, written in 1998. You will lose whatever faith you ever held in western politicians and international organizations after reading this book.

The descriptions of the Clinton administration arguing over the technical meaning of the word 'genocide' are just painful to read.