Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Big Sur - Jack Kerouac
The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
Short Stories - Paul Bowles
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon (very long and complex)
Anything He's Ever Written - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Post Office - Charles Bukowski
Pulp - Charles Bukowski
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
if you feel like venturing outside of America, just give the word. Some real incredible stuff out there in that big bad world.
So, after Catcher in the Rye (pretty good), I was going to try something from this list, but my cacty library had basically nothing on the list, except for a lot of Vonnegut stuff. So I played it safe and will read Slaughterhouse Five next.
Anyone can feel free to add something that is considered "classic" or "timeless". Fiction/non-fiction and foreign authors welcome. Thanks, pals.
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov is probably top 3 writers of all time. Any of his books are incredible, but there are a few that deal with complex problems in intertextuality. However, that doesn't mean they wouldn't still be great reads if you just went through them without catching all the references to other works. Lolita would be a great start, Luhzin Defense another, the list goes on and on.
The Trial - Franz Kafka. Kafka is my favorite writer and has written some of my favorite works. The Trial is a good example of his world. Like his other novels it is incomplete, which can, at times be aggravating. If you can pick up a book of his complete short stories (which are real common and really good), I would highly recommend it. Not many of his stories are crazy long and can completely alter your perception of reality upon reading.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
To Loud a Solitude - Bohumil Hrabal
The Stranger - Camus (any book by Camus is pretty great, but most people start with this one).
Journey to the End of the Night - Louis Ferdinand Celine (my favorite book of all time. some of the most stylistic and incredible writing i've ever seen).
The Razors Edge - W. Sommerset Maugham (very similar to The Sun Also Rises but better. short book, but an interesting read).
Dostoevsky - Even though I'm not a crazy fan of him or anything, people should probably read at least one of his works.
Thirst for Love - Yukio Mishima (japans most prolific writer, also one of the most interesting authors as a person as I can think of) I have only read this one and Acts of Worship (a book of short stories) but everything I have read has blown me away.
Kafka On the Shore - Haruki Murakami (incredible contemporary writer who creates great stories and visualizations). He's also pretty famous for Norwegian Wood so that might be something to look into.
Thats a pretty good start to a list.