This is not meant to become a listing of everyone's favorite contemporary works. It's easy to get recommendations for current stuff.What we want to do here is to point younger readers toward older books and stories that they might not have heard of, or long out-of-print writers whose names might be familiar but whose work is not.
Please recommend works you think important or influential that were first published prior to the mid-80s, thereabouts. We'd be grateful if you'd also add a brief line or two about yourself that could be published with your list. Comments about the recommended works are not required but are certainly welcome.
If your browser does not support forms, email your recommendations to sfwa-reading@sfwa.org. Please put "Reading Recommendations" in the subject line.