- "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", Robert Heinlein
- "What Do You Care What Other People Think?", Richard Feynman
(and almost anything else by him)
- "The Tao of Politics" (a translation of the Huananzi),
ed. Thomas Cleary
- "Anthem", Ayn Rand (her most readable work; also "Fountainhead")
- "The Tao Is Silent", Raymond Smullyan
- "The Art of War", Sun Tzu
- "Fahrenheit 451", Ray Bradbury (info preservation is everything)
- "All the Trouble in the World", P.J. O'Rourke
- "Demon Haunted World", Carl Sagan
- "Metamagical Themas", Douglas Hofstaedter (something of a
pons asinorum: if you like it, you'll read GEB & MI)
- "Consciousness Explained", Daniel Dennett
- "The Red Queen", Matt Ridley
- "Objective Knowledge", Karl Popper (and "Replies to My Critics")
- "Judgment and Reasoning in the Child", Jean Piaget