good books:

three Musketeers,
Allistair MacLean's war fiction (Guns of Navarone and Force 10, HMS Ulysses, etc.)
classic sci-fi (like Jules Verne and a lot of eraly US writers)
Lord of the Rings series


bad books:

Harry Pothead
new Star Wars expanded universe novels (OMG they killed Chewie!)
any drivel Ann Coulter put out