I'll write down my choices. I'm probably biased into the direction of cyberpunk. Choices are in no particular order 1. Dune, Herbert 2. Foundation, or anything of Asimov's 3. The moon is a harsh mistress, Heinlein 4. Neuromancer, Gibson 5. Snow Crash, Stephenson 6. Ender's Game, Card 7. Culture novel (Player of games or Consider Phlebas?), Banks 8. Red Mars, Robinson 9. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick 10. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Adams
I agree with all of those, emphatically with numbers 1,2,3,6,7,9 and 10. I'd also add Stranger in a Strange Land, purely because of it's departure from more 'mainstream' (Using that word very lightly here) sci-fi. There will never be a Stranger in a Strange Land adaptation. Also Jurassic Park needs to be on any list of sci-fi essentials.
You know, The Jurassic Park movie was so good, I always forget about the book, which was the original reason I became interested. I never think of this when thinking about sci-fi and it is a perfect pick.
The thing that I like about it is that it perfectly captures this wild-wild west feeling in biotech during the 80's and 90's. I think our expectations of genetic engineering and different kinds of 'consumer biologicals' are far more realistic now, and we've lost a lot of the wonder associated with this kind of science.
Neuromancer was Windup Girl 30 years ago. The cultural aspects of it, with a heapin' helpin' of Cold War Paranoia, are the basis of Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling (also 30 years old). That's why I recommended Windup Girl - it's one of the few books out there that isn't older than everybody reading this.
The Mars Trilogy (I just consider them as one super long book) are my favorite books of all time. I honestly felt like a change man after finishing them.
Sax pondering Mars' future atmospheric hue is one of my favourite literary passages.