A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I couldn't just make one, some of my favorites, I read to my son when he was growing up. I read to him every night, Lord of the rings, the hobbit, chronicles of Narnia, Eragon, the subtle knife trilogy, and some of my favorites, Weaveworld, the stand, wuthering heights, Rebecca, watership down, so many books, and with this question, I'll probably get ideas for more! Thanks!

Just read "All the Light We Cannot See" Anthony Doerr - excellent story. Also "The Girl on the Train". Favorite classical lit: Thomas Hardy "The Mayor of Castorbidge" and "Far From the Madding Crowd" , and "Howard's End" by E. M. Forster. And Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" was very well put together and insightful.

Soooooooooo many. I'll have to admit I've been reading comics as of late. Finished Lucifer, always reading Hellblazer, and for books Patricia Briggs and Lora Leigh, recently.

"The God Delusion." By Richard Dawkins.

The God delusion

It’s hard to have only one favorite or even a handful, I love how JaneAusten makes me feel when I read her works, and if you like science themed fiction (note: NOT science fiction, none of the science is beyond currently available in these works) Richard Preston had amazing books about bioterrorism and epidemics.

I loved Guns, Germs, and Steel, and learned a lot from it.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Dennis Lehanne's A Drink Before the War and Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men - I was a big film fan but I've found that literature is far more insightful and fufilling than movies.

Anything Steven King.

Too many to list.

I've spent the morning so far reading the posts and arguments about gun control and I'm so glad I noticed this post! I needed to get away from the gun issue for awhile!
So! There are so many books I love. So...so many. As a kid I read the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and The Hobbit) more times than I can say. Once in a great while I still read them, though Tolkien's style is sometimes like trying to cut your way through a jungle with a butter knife...
Anyone here read Ishmael or My Ishmael? Those books were my springboard for critical thinking and understanding the human race. I feel those books are quite eloquent.
I think the most entertaining book I've read was River God by Walter Smith. It's a tale of ancient Egypt as relayed by a eunic servant.
Anything by Bernard Cornwell. I've not read his Sharpe series...but his Lords of the North series and The Archer series are top shelf.

My all time favorite is STEPPENWOLF by Herman Hesse. I read ATLAS SHRUGGE and found it interesting, but troubling. After I read the rest of Rand's works I realized that the reason it was troubling was that all she was saying was (1) greed is good; (2) all forms of government are bad, and (3) there should no limitations on a person's "rights" -- regardless of the consequences of not limting them. Rand never got over being a member of a family of Russian oligarchs, and have lost everything to the Bolsheviks. She never matured morally and remained an extreme libertarian and an anarchist at heart.

Dracula. I read the book in high school and was so fascinated by the psychological game that Dracula played with his victims. It wasn't just a monster, it was a game... and the way he told it, through the journals of those being stalked, that made it all the more interesting and intense.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

East of Eden ... John Steinbeck . just shows you his old I am

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig and 1984 by George Orwell

Probably American Gods by Neil Gaiman, but I've yet to read anything by him, Isaac Asimov, or Terry Pratchett that I didn't like.

I like House of Leaves.

A bit of a guilty pleasure, but I really enjoyed the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. Great writing.

To summarize, an inquisitor in the far future hunts down traitors and recidivists, and in the process discovers that his moral compass is more flexible than he originally thought.

The Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn is also fantastic, the audio book makes it even better, IMO.

Jered Diamond?

Anything by Kinky Friedman, Ray Bradbury, and George Orwell...The Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson, Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice, A Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan, Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Nuclear Jellyfish by Tim Dorsey. Just to scratch the surface lol...I'm addicted to books.

I have not read Atlas Shrugged but did make the mistake of buying "Atlas Shrugged Part II" and found this movie presented by far the worst storyline of any movie I have seen.

I honestly thought the author should pay me money for having me sit through the wealthy-oligarch-worshipping, boot licking work of what I considered to be a literary and pathetic attempt to brown-nose those with the finical resources at the expense of societal health. This is the movie that changed the way I buy movies as I now read many reviews before purchasing a movie.

I recently screened "The Golden Compass" and originally liked that movie but after reading the book, found the movie anemic. Perhaps Atlas Shrugged is similar but I have no interest in reading that book.

My favorite book: The Grapes of Wrath. It changed my life.
I found the (award winning) movie in contrast to the book, terrible.