Man, do I love books.  My wife laughs at me because I enjoy the smell of books.  I love the smell of both old and new books and the texture of the book covers and inside pages.  There is just something about the written word and when a while back predictors were claiming printed books would decline, I knew they were nuts.   

Here are my three:

Flowers in the Attic:  I read this when I was a jr in high school.  A buddy got me to read it and this book turned me on to reading novels and other books.  I read this thing in one night and the race was on.  It is on this list for what it started.

The Choirboys:  The ultimate cop book.  I have read and read this thing so many times.  The humor is wonderful and this is the most classic of modern books on policing. 

The Great Work:  This book is by Thomas Berry and on the environment.  It is about how the environment is our last Great Work and we are failing terrible.  The most important theme of the book is how humankind has drastically changed the Earth over the past 400 yrs.