Book recommendations

[firecat]

I posted the 50 influential science fiction and fantasy books meme here and a while back the Guardian's idea of the "top 20 geek novels" here. In both cases I asked for recommendations. I got a bunch of them and am compiling them here for my reference and anyone else's who's interested. (I'm selfishly leaving out the recommendations I don't intend to follow, such as Heinlein.)

Isaac Asimov, Caves of Steel
Iain M Banks, Consider Phlebas, Excession, Look to Windward, The Bridge, Use of Weapons, Against a Dark Background, The Crow Road, The Wasp Factory
James Blish, Cities in Flight
Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity
Philip K. Dick, Time out of Joint, Valis
Greg Egan, Diaspora
Gwynyth Jones, Life
Harlan Ellison, Dangerous Visions (cherry-pick)
Nevil Shute, On the Beach
Cordwainer Smith, The Rediscovery of Man
Neal Stephenson, The Cryptonomicon
Theodore Sturgeon, More than Human
JRR Tolkien, The Silmarillion
John Varley, The Persistence of Vision
Peter Watts, the Behemoth series
John Wyndham, Day of the Triffids, Midwich Cuckoos, Chocky's Children, Trouble with Lichen, The Chrysalids