The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

By Alexander McCall Smith

Just read _anything_ by this author.  It's all great.

The Early Asimov Book One

It's great to read this - It turns out you don't have to start good to wind up that way.

The Divine Invasion

by Philip K. Dick

Qualitatively different from his other books, I think - like, Shakespeare started writing romances late in his career? This is one of PKD's, uh, Godmances?

Cryptonomicon

by Neal Stephenson

I remember being around people like this. I remember learning these things.

The Turk

by Tom Standage

MUST BUILD WOODEN ROBOT

Hard to be a God

by Arkady and Boris Strugatski

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

by Jules Verne

Jules Verne's science fiction is from a time when "scientist" means "person who knows the scientific name of thousands and thousands of fishes."