Reading is one of my passions or perhaps obsessions. Here are a few books that I'd recommend. They are not in any particular order, but I have tried to categorize them
a bit. They are not all necessarily great works of literature, but they are, at the very least, thought provoking and entertaining.


Fiction

Blood Meridian
- Cormac McCarthy
Some of the most violent, disturbing, and well written material you may ever read.

The Crossing
-Cormac McCarthy
This is one of a trilogy (including All the Pretty Horses and Cities of the Plain.It's worth reading the entire trilogy but I think The Crossing is the best of the three.

Suttree
-Cormac McCarthy
Make plans to be singularly depressed for a while.

A Prayer for Owen Meany
-John Irving

Love in the Time of Cholera
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver

The Brave Cowboy
-Edward Abbey
Tragic figure is a metaphore for the end of an era.Set in the Duke City (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

The Light in the Forest
-Conrade Richter
White captive grows up in native american culture.Life gets complicated.

The Old Man and the Sea
-Ernest Hemingway


The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway:The Finca Vigia Edition.
-Ernest Hemingway
Nobody can write a short story like Ernest Hemingway.

Collected Stories
-William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury
-William Faulkner
Of course.

Disgrace
-J. M. Coetzee
A South African academic deals with professional and personal calamity.Events are violent and singularly South African.

The Life and Times of Michael K.
-J.M. Coetzee


Far Tortuga
-Peter Matthiessen

Journey to Ixtlan:The Lessons of Don Juan
-Carlos Castenada

A Separate Reality:Further Conversations with Don Juan
-Carlos Castenada
Controversial books about the supposed teachings of a Native American shaman.Most critics doubt seriously if Don Juan ever existed outside of Castenada's imagination.
Very interesting reading nonetheless.

One Day of Life
-Manlio Argueta

Bastard out of Carolina
-Dorothy Allison

The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature
Edited by Geary Hobson

Poetry

Cien Sonetos de Amor
-Pablo Neruda

New Poems (1968-1970)
-Pablo Neruda

Man With a Bull-Tongue Plow
-Jesse Stuart

New Selected Poems
-Ted Hughes

Spell of the Yukon
-Robert Service


Autobiography/Biography

Darwin:The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
-Adrian Desmond and James Moore
Incredibly well researched and documented portrait of the Father of modern biology. Engaging and insightful.

Brother to a Dragonfly
-Will Campbell
A unique and thought provoking look at the civil rights movement in Mississippi.It could well change the way you view the world.

Long Walk to Freedom
-Nelson Mandela

Mandela:The Authorized Biography
-Anthony Sampson
This biography is a more engaging read than Mandela's own "Long Walk to Freedom".Of course, both are powerful.

Lawerence and the Arabs
-Robert Graves
-Not great literature nor a great history but a fantastic story.

Living to Tell the Tale
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Reads very much like one of his novels

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
-Alexandra Fuller
Growing up white in Africa with eccentric parents.

History

The Guns of August
-Barbara Tuchman
The personal and political intrigues surrounding the buildup to the great war and the first few months of unprecedented slaughter.

The Boer War
-Thomas Pakenham

A Brief History of Central America
-Hector Perez-Brignoli

Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America
-Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley
Insightful comparitive analysis of revolutionary movements in various latin countries.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
-Dee Alexander Brown
Popular history of several groups of Native Americans.Tragic, tragic, tragic.

Indian Country
-Peter Matthiassen
Gives a brief history of several Native American groups and then a follow up with journalistic exposition on modern issues facing each group.

With the Old Breed:Peleliu and Okinawa
-Eugene B. Sledge
Eugene Sledge was the only marine of his battalion to survive both battles.He later became a biology professor.This book is of historical significance in that it gives a first hand account of these terrible battles from the perspective of the individual on the ground.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
-Jared Diamond

Cartoon History of the Universe Volumes I, II, and III
-Larry Gonick
Wide ranging and highly entertaining.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your History Textbook Got Wrong
-James W. Loewen

A People's History of the United States
-Howard Zinn


Historical Fiction

The Hornet's Nest
-Jimmy Carter
Revolutionary war era story set in the Carolina's and Georgia

Nonfiction

The Demon Haunted World:Science as a Candle in the Dark
-Carl Sagan

Endurance:Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
-Alfred Lansing
Unbuhleevable!

Confederates in the Attic
-Tony Horwitz


Iron and Silk
-Mark Salzman
An American's experience in China.

Conservation

A Sand County Almanac
-Aldo Leopold

The River of the Mother of God
-Aldo Leopold

First Along the River: A brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement
-Benjamin Kline

The Myth of Wild Africa
-Johathan S. Adams and Thomas O. McShane

Desert Solitaire
-Edward Abbey