I'm also interested. There's a list compiled by Lukeprog et al. about the best textbooks in every subject, but that's just textbooks.
Perhaps opening a thread asking peeps to post a few books would be useful? I'd ask for one or two books for each of...
Favorite
Most influential (towards your life, your thinking, idk)
Most fun
Best outside of a genre that you normally read
and others. maybe.
I think the textbook-list was a nice idea, but in the ended didn't really work that well, since too few people were involved, and, as you say, it's only textbooks -- not my normal digest of books.
So as my own little contribution, I'll try to add a few books every time the Media Thread comes up; hopefully more people will do that. Let's fight against Sturgeon's Law!
This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. I find that exposure to LW ideas makes me less likely to enjoy some entertainment media that is otherwise quite popular, and finding media recommended by LWers is a good way to mitigate this. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules: