I don't read as often as I'd like or know I should, but when I do sit down I like to partake of:

Edgar Allen Poe, any of the short stories

Richard Matheson, wonderful short stories, and my favorite vampire novel, "I Am Legend"

H.P. Lovecraft, any short stories

Douglass Adams, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series, very funny stuff

The World According to Garp, John Irving

Phillip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - the movie Blade Runner is based on this book. Really cool influention intellectual sci-fi

William Gibson, Neuromancer - the father of "cyber-punk" Matrix style sci-fi long before the matrix. Good sci-fi thriller. Check out also Virtual Light by Gibson.



Some of the classics:
Hamlet
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Phantom of the Opera - Alexander Dumas
A Christmas Carol - Dickens

I know, Christmas Carol is an odd addition to this list, but I've always liked it.

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"Even a man who is pure of heart
And says his prayers by night
Can become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
And the moon is full and bright."