My favorite books aren't always based on the book itself but more about what the book lead to. Mine are listed in no particular order.
Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior by Geoffrey Miller - A wonderful book that started me down a road of learning more about the brain and human behavior
The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives by Shankar Vedantam - Definitely a favorite book in and of itself, it really explained a lot about how humans operate.
A Million Open Doors by John Barnes - The first book in one of my favorite science fiction series. It took me two tries to get into the book but once I did it was very interesting. It's the only book I've read with an economist as it's hero.
Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth and the Politics of the Body by Riane Eisler - A very interesting book that put a different spin on history and the "facts" we learned about past societies. It also introduced me to some wonderful feminist authors and works that I enjoyed very much as well
Startide Rising by David Brin - The second book in the uplift trilogy. I read it first without knowing it was part of a series and then read the rest and the next three books set in the uplift universe and a lot of other David Brin works.
