Democracy in America

I would not recommend a single book for everyone to read, because people have different tastes and interests - and even if you recommend a single book based on people's interests - if they are really interested in that and the book is important to that interest it's likely they've already read it. So probably a recommendation on any field should be made based on calculations both of how essential it is, but also how it's reading may change assumptions about the field if the person has not read it. It seems somewhat arrogant. And in the end it's annoying to get recommended a book one considers essential to the field, as it implies one does not know what one knows. All that said - for the field of: Fantasy - Gormenghast America - Democracy in America Programming - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Economics: - The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith - Das Kapital, Karl Marx - That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, Frederic Bastiat Philosophy / Politics: - The Republic, Plato - Second Treatise on Government, John Locke - The Law, Frederic Bastiat - Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes - Meditations, Marcus Aurelius - Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville - On Liberty, John Stuart Mill Fiction: - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Mark Twain - The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin - Metamorphoses, Franz Kafka - Candide, Voltaire - The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas