Disclaimer: The books and films mentioned below are catered to the taste of lastfactor&c. and do not reflect either critical or majority opinion. We like the listed titles because they’re good stories and/or not Hollywood showing off special effects.

Reading [by author]:

Adams, Douglas

Arouet, François-Marie [nom de plume: Voltaire]

Asimov, Isaac

Baxter, Stephen

Beckett, Samuel

Buck, Pearl S.

Carlyle, Thomas.

Christie, Agatha

Clarke, Arthur C.

Clements, Samuel [nom de plume: Mark Twain]

Coelho, Paul

Davidson, Avram

Dickens, Charles

Doyle, Arthur Conan

Frost, Robert

Gaiman, Neil

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

Haggard, H. Rider

Handler, Daniel [nom de plume: Lemony Snicket]

Hawking, Stephen

Heinlein, Robert A.

Hemingway, Ernest

Homer [no last name]

Hugo, Victor

Huxley, Aldous

Johns, W.E.

Kafka, Franz

King, Laurie R.

Kipling, Rudyard

Lafferty, R.A.

Lahiri, Jhumpa

Le Guin, Ursula K.

Leiber, Fritz

Ligotti, Thomas

Lovecraft, H.P.

Lewis, C.S.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

Melville, Herman

Modesitt, L.E.

Moore, Alan

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

Orwell, George

Plato [no last name]

Poe, Edgar Allan

Pratchett, Terry

Reynolds, Alistair

Roy, Arundhati

Russell, Bertrand

Sagan, Carl

Shakespeare, William

Shaw, George Bernard

Sophocles [no last name]

Stevenson, Robert Louis

Stoker, Bram

Tolkien, J.R.R.

Verne, Jules

Wells, H.G.

Wilde, Oscar

Wodehouse, P.G.

Film:

Changeling (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Defiance (2008)

The Dark Knight (2008 )

Sunshine (2007)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

La Tourneuse des Pages (2006)

The Prestige (2006)

Batman Begins (2005)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007, sequel scheduled for 2010)

Equilibrium (2002)

Minority Report (2002)

Le Pacte des Loups (2001)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Gladiator (2000)

The 6th Day (2000)

Memento (2000)

Dark City (1998 )

Gattaca (1997)

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Les Visiteurs (1993)

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)

Blade Runner (1982)

The Elephant Man (1980)

Alien (1979)

Monty Python’s Life of Bryan (1979)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 )

Planet of the Apes (1968, remade 2001)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

This Island Earth (1955)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Frankenstein (1931)

Metropolis (1927)