Here are some of my favorite reads.

Fiction books that read like action/adventure movies:
James Byron Huggins
Douglas Preston / Lincoln Childe
Dean Koontz
James Patterson - storyline gets redundant after a while.

Stephen King is always good for a mind f*ck, downside is his books are long - I like Insomnia

I like Hemmingway for classic fiction, but his writing style is not for everyone.

Other non-fiction:
Stephen Jay Gould - The Panda's Thumb (and others) - evolutionary history and other interesting stories about natural history.
Mark Booth - Secret History of the World - Linking modern religion to its roots and references to the secret societies.
Practical Wisdom - Barry Schwartz & Kenneth Sharpe - modern examples of wisdom and lack of it

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The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor - V. Lombardi

My favorites
Dune- Frank Herbert
The Divine Comedy- Dante Alighieri
The Catcher in The Rye- J.D. Salinger
The Hunt For Red October- Tom Clancy
MacBeth- William Shakespeare
Angels and Demons- Dan Brown

Check this out
"Out of Touch"

I have read more than 800 books on about every subject. My advice for a new reader, for a fast progress, is to read classic books that shaped the world. That gives you and edge to understand our society and our minds. I think reading for sarging wouldn't work if you are not a true hardcore intellectual and move in "high culture" circles, but it can give you an edge over the usual club snob.

Start with the Bible, the Quran and get some short books on Judaism and Budism. Knowing about religion will help you understand the minds of religious people.

Then try the classics of major languages, the books that helped define cultures, for example:

Iliad - Homer
Odissey - Homer
Eneid - Virgil
Don Quixote - Cervantes
The complete works of Shakespeare (at least try to read the most important ones or get the movies done by Kenneth Branagh)
The complete works of Moliere
Candide - Voltaire
Faust - Goethe
Werther - Goethe

Politics and economics allow you to read people in a way similar to religion. Try some anthologies or abridged books of Marx, Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, Edmund Burke, Ludwig Von Mises, Keynes. For a quicker progress, get one book on history of philosophy, another one on history of politics and another on economics. That will give you the essential background and you can go to the original works later.

It seems like philosophy and politics have been thrown around quite a bit. I know from experience that reading good philosophy can completely change your outlook on life. Of you're up for a monster book that will get you thinking, I'd recommend Atlas Shrugged. My copy is 1069 pages, but it's entirely worth the read, regardless of what you think of Ayn Rand. If you're into American history and politics, I'd reccomend Liberty and Tyranny by Mark R. Levin. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli is worth your time no matter who you are. If you want something less brain-melting, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series is fun stuff.

Lone Survivor, it is such an incredible story of courage and camaraderie! I read it in two days it was a page turner for sure. It will also give you a sense of pride and amazement at what the human body is capable of!

The Hobbit by Tolkien.

That's my favorite book. For me, it's part of my routines as well, if someone asks what my favorite book is. I say "The Hobbit, it's about the adventures of the young Bilbo Baggins, you know, the hobbit whose birthday they celebrate in the first Lord of the Rings movie. It is written more of in a fairytale style, it's about how Bilbo, thirteen dwarves, and Gandalf, travelling for like a year to defeat a dragon who stole the treasures of the dwarves and the mountain city they lived in, and they want to conquer it back. That's a book I'll surely read as a bedtime story for my kids someday. Not only is it a good story, but Bilbo wasn't the adventurer type, but in the end he gets the hang of it. And I want my kids to be adventurous. If I read that book when I was eight, I would've been hanging around in the local forests with a wooden sword and a blanket on my back as a cape a lot more. I want my kids to experience such things."
Girls listen to it INTENTLY. It communicates some good values, like a good fatherly side, and you can easily branch off a conversation line about childhood.

Another favorite of mine is Blankets by Craig Thompson. It's actually a graphic novel.

It's very deep and emotional, really suggested reading.

Hey, Yungsik! Nice to meet a fellow Randian here!

Actually, for the development of the "inner game" I think Objectivism is awesome. I am preparing a "self help" course based in Objectivism that will start in one or two months. My advice for all my troubled friends is to start with The Fountainhead, follow with Six Pillars and then read The Mystery Method. If they have the guts for theoretical philosophy I send them to read "The Logical Structure of Objectivism", which is available free online.

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Judo is the ultimate pick up art.

"Cosmos" by Carl Sagan


Do it.

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.
Hagakure The Book of The Samurai.

The 48 Laws of Power is a book on how to manipulate people, its quite... interesting to say the least and u can easily find that here: www2.tech.purdue.edu/cg/courses/.../48_laws_of_power.htm

The Game - Neil Strauss : PUA Book

Novels
Norwegian Wood
Less Than Zero
The Dice Man
Different Seasons
Naked Lunch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

All of those books are what I'd call culturally significant to some extent and well worth the time reading, even if it's purely about saying you've read them. I think a lot of them are also great providers of perspective; Norwegian Wood and Less Than Zero really resonated with me.

Self Help and Related
Anything by Robert Greene
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
The Prince
The Confident Speaker
The Art of War
The Art of Convincing

Science Related
The Selfish Gene/The Blind Watchmaker/The Extended Phenotype/Climbing Mount Improbable/The God Delusion all by Dawkins.
Pale Blue Dot
A Brief History of Time
Sex and the Origins of Death

To name a few.

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I've got 99 problems but...