W0m6at, if you like to read Sci-Fi, I suggest the Larry Niven series dealing with the Ringworld. It is four books:

Ringworld
Ringworld Engineers
Ringworld Throne
and
Ringworld Children.

Mike

David Eddings' Belgariad series.  Fantasy, fun reads for me.  I have lost count of how many times I've read them and I always find something new when I read them.  Does have a sequel series which is also quite good.

Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon and the George series.  Also fantasy and def. worth the read!

Sorry I broke the rules (both contain at least 5 books), but couldn't decide between the two which I like more. 

Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory

The Wasp Factory is a darkly twisted first person narrative of Frank, a teenager. Who has some very dark ideas. (I can't say more else I could spoil it.)

Iain Banks - The Crow Road

The book begins: 'It was the day my grandmother exploded.

Its a story of Prentice searching for his Uncle who mysteriously disappeared and it includes Prentice's own journey of discovery.

(It has also been made into a TV series - on DVD)

David Brin - The Uplift War

The Uplift War is a 1987 science fiction novel by David Brin and the third book of six set in his Uplift Universe. It was nominated as the best novel for the 1987 Nebula Award and won the 1988 Hugo Award.

Larry Niven - Dream Park

This novel is set in a theme park which uses holograms & new technology. The hunt is on for a murderer whilst a game is in progress.

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game

It is set in Earth's future where mankind has barely survived two invasions by the "buggers", an insectoid alien race, and the International Fleet is preparing for war. This book describes the experience of Ender Wiggin in a Battle School.

Agreed with snarbo, you can't go wrong with Terry Pratchett.
The four others (in no particular order):
J.D. Salinger "The Catcher in the Rye"
Thomas Mann "Der Zauberberg" (The Magic Mountain)
Günther Grass "Die Blechtrommel" (The Tin Drum)
Douglas Adams  / Mark Carwardine "Last Chance to see ..."
Lawrence Norfolk "Lemprière's Dictionary"

All are quite different but definitely share a great sense of humour.

Thanks for the suggestions people, especially those who've gone to the effort to sum-up the books for us all.  There's a few on the list I've got but not read yet.  As for the Terry Pratchett, my gf has all the "non-kiddy" Discworld (my family and I helped fill the gaps in her collection last year as a gift).  It's such an overwhelming back-catalogue.  I think I'll try reading some at some stage, but probably a story-arc at a time.  I did read the Nanny Ogg short story that was in the anthology "Legends II".

Special thanks to goblinsdoitall for the German books.
pauls42, "'It was the day my grandmother exploded" is the sort of thing that attracts my mad, mad mind.

I shall make some suggestions now:

Rachel Carson - Silent Spring
One of, if not the most important environmental books ever written.  So many people have a "but they didn't know back then" mentality, but this book, written in 1962, shows how common it was for scientific evidence and best practice to be ignored.  A quite scary book (and probably even scarier when you realise things haven't changed much).

Archie Weller - Land of the Golden Clouds
Think The Lord of the Rings meets Mad Max.  That's not quite true, but it's a post-apocalyptic Australia (far enough past that life is short and lived tribally, and the nuclear war is now mythology).  There's prejudice, misunderstandings, and a quest.  An excellent Australian fantasy/sci-fi.

Clive Barker - Weaveworld
Ordinary guy gets caught up in a fight to save a magical world that's been hiding for years in the weave of a rug, hidden in a house in London.

Alexander Theoux & (ill. by) Brian Froud - Master Snickup's Cloak
Now this one is a picture book, and only short.  My girlfriend purchased it for me because she knows I love Froud's artwork.  Yes, the pictures are awesome, but the story is a dark to boot, with historical context.  It begins:

Quote:
One morning it was...

                                The Middle Ages

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
The titular protagonist wishes to never age, but rather that his portrait shall.  He then uses this gift/curse to do as he pleases to enjoy his life.  Very similar themes to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (which could just as easily have gone here, but will have to appear on page 2 I suppose).

Egad it was hard keeping that to five!

Quoting schultzy:

Quote:
Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Forever War - Joe Haldeman

I've recently acquiews both of these titles, although I've not read either yet.  My gf has read (my copy of) Starship Troopers, and has been reading lots of Heinlein lately.  I grabbed Forever War in the omnibus edition "Peace and War" (which contains the two sequels).  The remaining three are new to me.  Care to elaborate on them?

No Horror? Read M.R. James..

Quoting W0m6at:

Quote:
My gf has read (my copy of) Starship Troopers, and has been reading lots of Heinlein lately.

I hope it's his earlier stuff. The newer books really suck, after "The number of the beast" I almost deleted him from my list of readable authors alltogether.

Quote:
I grabbed Forever War in the omnibus edition "Peace and War" (which contains the two sequels).  The remaining three are new to me.  Care to elaborate on them?

There is only one sequel! And that was for me rather dull, a risk every sequel contains. "Forever peace" however is really good again.

I recently finished the five volumes of Philip K. Dick short stories. Really good stuff, and as a sf-movie-fan you are able to find a lot of ideas that made it into movies. Whole movies made of a few pages (Total Recall) or just single ideas, images, slang etc. that wound up somewhere.


cya, Mithi