I always read Douglas Adams... Who doesn't like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?!? Now I'm reading The Hobbit for the first time.
You've never read The Hobbit before? How about The Lord of the Rings? The movies were pretty great but the books are classics to me. I read them first as a teenager. Like most people, I suspect. Great books even if you're not into the whole "fantasy" style stuff. I can't say I'm a big fantasy or sci-fi guy but Tolkien's books are wonderfully well written.
The Hobbit and LOTR hold up better for me as an adult than say CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia do. Gotta be a kid to really enjoy those.
What I admire about Tolkien is that he truly has this whole other world in his head. Every detail is there. It all fits together and seems like it really could exist somehow.
Plus Tolkien was a pipe smoker. Props for that.
Hey Phatcat have you read A song of Ice and Fire? It's definitely on the same level as Tolkiens stuff. Although less fantasy, more war of the roses.