Of the "Great Books" I have read:

Moby Dick by Melville: I read it as a treatise on passion. One of my favorite classics. It makes for a poor adventure tale.

Godel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter: A well-deserved Pulitzer, it has no equal. It's not just a book. It is art.

War and Peace by Tolstoy: I enjoyed it much more than Anna Karenina. Tolstoy knows the mind of his characters.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: The only other Eco I have read is Focault's Pendulum. This one was much better. A fantastic mystery novel with a setting soaked in character.

The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich (yes that Voynich): Revolution in 1840 Italy, and the minds of revolutionaries. Just a unique read that stuck with me.

In Our Time by Hemmingway: This convinced me that Hemmingway was a short story writer that also wrote novels. If you like it also read The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, in whatever collection it resides.

The Once and Future King by T.H. White: A singular book of Arthurian fantasy.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: You must have read it. If you haven't you must. A courageous work.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: War as the madness it is. In Vietnam, my father once tackled a guy that threw a grenade into the officer's mess, then terrorized the camp with a shotgun. They transferred him.

Great Expectations by Dickens: I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. If you really like what Dickens is all about, Bleakhouse is all that and more.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving: I fucking hate the message, but love the book.

Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan: The subtitle says it all: "Reflections on the Romance of Science". It inspired me in my early 20's, and is probably part of why I am a scientist.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow: Not a great, but a short read that is well worth the afternoon it will take.

To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust: Also not a great, but it's about the revolt of Lucifer in Heaven, and he pulls it off.