Doesn't everybody read 1984 in Jr. high or high school?

I didn't, though I read it about 4 years ago.

I've only read 4 and a half books on this list, though there's several I'd like to.

I have only read one, maybe two -- I can't remember if I read Brave New World. But just last night my friend Ron recommended The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson to me. Weird.

I haven't read The Diamond Age, but I highly recommend Cryptonomicon if you're up to it. 900 pages of geek-reading joy.

I've read 5. The Illuminatus Trilogy is one (are three?) of my favorites. I made my dad read it after I did in high school and we still make references to it. He loves the Mason conspiracy stuff. Come to think of it, I bet my dad's read nearly all of these books.

Personally I've always preferred the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy to the Illuminatus Trilogy, but it's never been as popular for some reason or another.

I was personally appalled not to see “Godel, Escher, and Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid” on the Top 20 Geek Novels. Is it perhaps too intense for geeks, or perhaps because it is based on fact (like all good science fiction) as opposed to fantasy, which provides the basis for most of the listed geek’ature.