I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series even though I missed the bandwagon years ago. You should definitely start the first one and see if you like it.
Cold Mountain is the last novel that blew me away...very gritty and oh so well written...won the Pulitzer on the authors first book btw,wow. He's written one since I haven't read(can't remember his name now sorry). No Country for Old Men was also very good if you can take Cormac McCarthy's writing style(full of grammatic/convention purposeful ignorances, lol.)
Classic-wise, I'd go with anything Steinbeck, Michener, or Hemingway as far as American authors go. For Whom the Bell Tolls, for starters in Hemingway's case...plus so many others.
EDIT: If you like westerns, you can't go wrong with any of the McMurtrey novels; especially I'd recommend Comanche Moon. It has a very cool surreal feel and should be made into a movie honoring the violent and very epic feel of the book.....someone who'd capture the novel's intensity properly I mean.
They're not exactly comedy or literary masterpieces, but I really enjoy the boots-on-the-ground point of view of war memoirs. My favorites are:
1. The Things They Carried - while not a direct memoir, it takes a very interesting, impactful approach 2. House to House 3. Lone Survivor 4. Generation Kill
They are all very powerful, revealing stories of modern day soldiers and war.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.. freaking amazing. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene... but this was in high school when I was hell-bent on being a Physics major (which ended up only lasting for one semester. heh.)
Right now im loving Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, its completely diffrent from the film (which was based off of the book) and its a really intersting story of a grunt in the (future) army.
How about some sci-fi? Try Snow Crash, The Sprawl Trilogy, Dune, Starship Troopers, Roadside Picnic, Lords of Light, everything Asimov, and Rendezvous with Rama
Most of the books i would recommend already have been in this thread although i would like to reiterate Catch-22 and anything by Terry Pratchett ( Mort/Small Gods/Good Omens)
I would recommend Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold, it is an excellent novel to read on a long journey, fast paced and the author is great at bringing across a magicians showmanship on paper
If you want something funny, I suggest Getting Even, Without Feathers and Side Effects by Woody Allen. These are all "old school" Woody Allen, so the stories are full of off the wall references and irrational scenes. The above link is for a collection. EDIT: Actually, you may need to have already read the books at the bottom to understand some of the jokes in these books.
If you want sci-fi themed comedy, you should look at the works of Robert Asprin. Phule's Company and Another Fine Myth are good starts. Both are the first books from a series. as in all humor related books, some are funnier than others, but I recall these two giving me a good chuckle throughout.
After that, I'll suggest The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. I enjoyed it more than On the Road, although that one is good, too. Not really funny, but good reads.
And, if you really want something that's a fairly easy read although with layers and layers of deeper meaning then check out Albert Camus' the Stranger, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground and Voltaire's Candide.
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