Everyone has a couple of books that they often recommend (or more to the point, think people who haven't read them are idiots or at least un-literate for not having read them). You don't have to justify them.
Though, I am going to.
1) Dune : Yes it takes place in a feudal system set ten thousand years in the future, but what it comes down to is a wonderful story about politics (especially a very literal discussion of hydrolic despotism), religion, and the power of a messiah.
2) The Road: Cormac McCarthy's best work, set in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world, which is a story about a man and his love for his son. In addition to it being a great story, and an easy read, it is a spectacular example of one of the more important writers of the last forty years.
3) Sophie's World: See the Care Package Project.
4) Neuromancer: The original cyberpunk novel and it has the best opening line of any book ever.
5) Guns, Germs, & Steel: Everything you wanted to know about Eurocentrism but were afraid to ask, and a look at why Western Culture has come to dominate (for the last five hundred years or so).
(Honorable Mention: The Mind's I: At the same time, the most accessible book on this list and the least. If you want interesting reads on the nature of thought, cognition, and a grounding in the metaphysics of the late 20th, it is worth the time and effort.)
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