[PointyHairedJedi]

Okay, going to restrict myself to just the one book. And because Dune has already been mentioned, it'll be a different book.

The Shape of Things to Come, by H.G. Wells. It's mostly written in a somewhat abstract style, and is deliberately very dry, but it is absolutely fascinating in it's analysis of the modern day society and the take on the idea of the world state that it presents so ably. Some of the predictions do even stand the test of time, but the really interesting thing is though the world that Wells presents is very different than our own, you can imagine that this really might have happened, that the world might have gone down this path in exactly the way he sets out. In some ways one might compare it to Citizen Cane - once you've read it, you'll start to notice the echoes even in books written recently. All in all, one of those books that I think everyone should read the once.