I'm glad to see others appreciate the Principia Discordia and Church of the Sub-Genius. :)

Here's a few more decidedly provocative titles to sit on your shelf:
A Clockwork Orange
1984
Portnoy's Complaint
Neuromancer
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Howl
Naked Lunch
The God Delusion
Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Justin Cronin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Cronin

The Passage

and the sequel

The Twelve (released on oct 25th)

If you like Stephen King, this is kinda like The Stand, but much better.

I'm all about free books nowadays. Go to the Project Gutenberg site and type in "horror" or "historical" in the search field. Results are showing 25 pages for horror on my browser. You may find some jewels from the past.

Also recommend the Baen Free Library for Sci-fi. Some are really good, some . . not so much.

If you insist on hard-copy I will mention my wife's source. She buys used "like new" books from Amazon for a fraction of the original cost. She has purchased hundreds (she is an avid reader) and most appear to actually be new. She has never received a used book ("like new") that she was not happy with. Edit: Of course you need to use common sense when deciding who to buy "used - like new" books from as "96% positive over the past 12 months. (1,831,602 total ratings)" is preferable to "86% positive. (7 total ratings)"

-Sherlock Holmes' complete novels and stories (I like the insights the stories give on Victorian London. Especially if you know the city well enough, you can picture what the places looked like 120 years ago).

-The concise Samuel Pepys (It will take some effort to get into it, but I find it really entertaining to read. Very funny at times. Describes London in the 1660's, including the Great Fire.)

-China Miéville's Perdido Street Station

Philosophy :
-Søren Kierkegaard
-John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism)
-Hegel
-Jean-Paul Sartre

If you can find a copy, my favourite book is "History of a Nation of One", by Jecon Gregory. Describes the real life of a man who didn't know who he was, where he's from, and his adventures bumming around Europe from the age of 5. Funny but very sad at the same time, the writting style is rather unique.

Can't pass up the Hitchhiker's Guide books...

Two that I like, and are good for WTF value, are:

Creepy Susie by Angus Oblong

and

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton.

So, nonfiction/historical works

Given the magnitude of the event, it's pretty embarrassing how little the average American knows about The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; if that sounds like you, read the book. Yes, it's long, but totally worth it.

Speaking of WWII, war crimes. I won't recommend a Holocaust book, because who doesn't know about the Holocaust, but if you're not familiar with The Rape of Nanking, one of the truly dark moments in Japanese history (and one which they refuse to apologize for), you really should be.

Keeping with the general theme of awful stuff happening, I think I got out of high school without ever spending a single day on African history. That's embarrassing. If you're in the same boat, read The Scramble for Africa.

But that was all so long ago! There's stuff going on this very moment that could be ruining your day! In order not to be stuck in the past, you should read The New Jim Crow.

On the same general topic, you should read Seeing White: An Introduction to White Privilege and Race

Also, everyone should read Shake Hands With the Devil, about the Rwanda genocide.

"But BadDecissions," you say, "do you have any book recommendations that won't leave me feeling worse then I did before I started reading?" Well of course I do! There's ... uh ... well, you could read ... uh ... look, I'm not actually a manic depressive, it's just that my non-fiction section is a little bleak. If you're willing to go outside of "horror and historical," then you, and everyone else, should read Wodehouse. Starting with ... hm ... Life At Blandings, which is apparently also called The World of Blandings.

edit: I almost forgot The Fatal Shore, on Australia! How could I!

I have the Road, an anthology of Poe's work, A Clockwork Orange, and a few others mentioned. Sorry for not making those clear.
Anything else?

What about science fiction? L Ron Hubbard?

Some church-related history books:

If you want a neat early-church book, try picking up Eusebius' work. It was done 3rd or 4th century and has a lot of good stuff in it if you're interested.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/082543307X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=082543307X&linkCode=as2&tag=legeofleef-20

Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization is a really neat history book, too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385418493/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385418493&linkCode=as2&tag=legeofleef-20


On the liberal side, The Gospel of Thomas (when you read it, you'll immediately be able to tell it's from a different era -- very gnostic in its form and substance)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1463600402/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1463600402&linkCode=as2&tag=legeofleef-20


Every RTS and TBS player should have a copy of this in their shelves: The Art of War
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081331951X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=081331951X&linkCode=as2&tag=legeofleef-20


For graphic novels, if you haven't read any of the Invincibles, get it (like is for compedium 1 -- there are many groupings, though):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607064111/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1607064111&linkCode=as2&tag=legeofleef-20

It's a really good spin on classic comics. It really twists some stuff up beautifully. I love it.


Another good one to throw in there, if you haven't read it, is the Dark Tower series. I still haven't read it, but the praises from my friends never end. I'll have to get to it some time.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451211243/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0451211243&linkCode=as2&tag=legeofleef-20

(note: ref links included)

Waterstone's used to carry them. Going back a decade - decade-and-half.
TBH, it gets really tedious and repetitive after about 100 pages. 600 pages later you just want to throw it away. Juliette, the other book, takes that to extremes, and then some.