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?