I hate HATE Ayn Rand's masturbatory exercises that she likes to call books. I must have been the only teenager who read them and thought "what a crock of shit!"
But I also really disliked Catcher in the Rye which the rest of my 11th grade English class was salivating all over.
My favourites, in no particular order:
Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities. I have more of an emotional attachment to Oliver Twist, since it was the first grown up book I read, but Tale is funnier and more charming, IMO.
Faulkner - Light in August. Because it's so beautiful.
de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince. I read this book every year and it never loses its appeal. But you have to get the original illustrated version to fully experience it, I think. I've also read it in French.
Nabokov - Lolita. I still find it very disturbing, but I really like his literary style. There are some gorgeous passages.
Theroux - Dark Star Safari. A must read for everyone who is intrigued by Africa. Funny and heartbreaking tale of the decrepit place we have allowed it to become in the last half a century.
Hesse - Siddhartha. Actually Narcissus and Goldmund is a far better book, but there is a particular line that Siddhartha says to Kamala that had a lot of impact on me, and continues to do so today.
Irving - The World According to Garp. This is my indulgence. Funny, witty, didn't want to put it down. The movie sucked.
Conrad - Heart of Darkness. I read it after I read Theroux's book and I think I probably liked it a lot more because of that.
Coelho - The Alchemist. Because I read it at a point in my life when I needed to believe in things bigger than myself.
Machiavelli - The Prince. Everyone should read it, lots of social value, even today.
Shute - On the Beach. Mostly because I like books that make me think about them long after I've finished reading. What would you do in your last days here?
But, there is something about them that compels you to keep reading. 
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