NPR did a listener survey on the best science fiction and fantasy books and posted a list of the top 100. The ones I’ve read are in bold. At a glance, the list seems a little bit too weighted toward more recent stuff. Anything else on here anyone would particularly recommend?
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert [first book only–L.M.]
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson [first book only–L.M.]
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
A Thinking Reed 
Stephen R. Donaldson ranks only 58? And what happened to CS Lewis’s Narnia series? I agree there’s a preponderance of recent work on the list, but many of the oldies-but-goodies are well-represented, e.g., Heinlein, Niven, Clarke, et al.
The Last Unicorn (Peter Beagle) and The Princess Bride (William Goldman) are both quite good, although I suspect their inclusion on this list has much to do with the fact that they both have two excellent movie versions (and I think an argument can be made in both cases that the movie is at least as good as the book on which it is based). All the Asimovs are good but rather different; read The Foundation Trilogy if you like history, The Caves of Steel if you like mysteries (although I think The Naked Sun, a sequel, is in some ways better; but in either case Asimov is an underappreciated mystery writer), and I, Robot if you like puzzle stories. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is very good, but it is a very big and sprawling book, not really to be read unless you have large blocks of time set aside for it.
None of Olaf Stapledon’s works are on the list, although at least Sirius should be — I actually recommend that one highly (it’s a story about a dog given human-level intelligence); judging from your interest, you’d like it a lot.
A Song of Ice and Fire and The Kingkiller Chronicles are some of the best fantasy from the last 10-15 years. Be warned, however, that neither is finished at this point.
Snow Crash is excellent cyberpunk stuff. How can you go wrong with a character named Hiro Protagonist?
Watership Down is a beautiful dark fantasy fairy-tale.
The Mists of Avalon is one of the better Arthur re-imaginings I’ve read.
The Hyperion Cantos is one of the best sci-fi series I’ve ever read. As is typical of Simmons, he uses lots of literary allusion. His characters are stunningly real and his imagination is outstanding.
The Mote in God’s Eye is the best first contact story I’ve read.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a book that seems like it shouldn’t work – alternate history with magic – and written in the style of 19-century authors. However, the detail in it is ensorcelling and leaves you wanting more.
I’ve read a good chunk of the list and could recommend more, but those are amongst the best of the ones you haven’t read.
I really liked Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? – the book from which the Bladerunner movie was made. The book is pretty different, and Dick is an accustomed taste, but it has some interesting stuff about animals in it.
I also liked Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – enough to by it in audo (20+ CDs!) after reading it from the library.
Read Watership Down long ago and liked it very much though it’s kind of sad.
I’d also recommend Ringworld – neat idea that.
The Left Hand of Darkness is really a kind of classic feminist sci fi book – what life would be like if people never knew if and when they be male of female.
The Once And Future King, – really liked this too.
I just reread The Forever War a couple of months ago. Still liked it, for the most part. It has an interesting take on future gay/straight culture.
The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever – the only book I’ve read about a leper and how that can affect a person’s elf esteem. Fairly good, I thought.
Conan (and Elric of Melniboné 🙂 I was a big fan in college but I don’t know how they would hold up. You could try the comics.
Loved The Crystal Cave and the three books that came after it about Merlin.
The Doomsday book was very good, I thought, if you’re interested in medieval stuff, but sad.
Before I add my own, I’ll second crystal’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. What a vision.
I also enjoyed I, Robot, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Sword of Truth, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Contact. The Handmaid’s Tale was a vision of hysteria and brilliance together. While we were clearly not in danger of any such dystopic future when it was written, the images were still valuable in their own right. Contact offered more than the movie made from it did, though that was a good adaptation.
Another book on elf esteem is Summa Elvetica.
None of the following is actually science fiction.
Classifying them as such is a symptom of the now triumphant rejection of the difference between actual literature and entertaining junk – er, genre fiction.
Only an age that calls comic books “graphic novels” could so misclassify these novels.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
1984, by George Orwell
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Btw, I myself am a voracious fan of mysteries/thrillers.
As such I insist Graham Greene was wrong to classify Brighton Rock, and even Stamboul Train, as “entertainments.”
I’ll give you some of those–particularly Orwell and McCarthy. But to not classify, say, Miller as SF just seems overly strict. It’s been considered an SF classic pretty much since it was published, as far as I know. Unless in your virew “real” literature and SF are mutually exclusive by definition.