A list of books recommended by RMS...

[roger64]

Source here : http://blog.reddit.com/2010/07/rms-ama.html
and a nice word to Amazon in the end...

19. OsamaK: What's the best book you have ever read?

RMS: I can't remember now all the books I have read and loved. And even if
I could, I would not be able to pick one to call it best.

If you like fairly hard Science Fiction with a big vision, I recommend
A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge, and Diaspora, by Greg Egan. If
you like something a little less hard, I recommend The Jehovah
Contract by Victor Koman. If you like detective fiction, I recommend
Laura King's books about Mary Russell, starting with The Beekeeper's
Apprentice, and Steve Saylor's Roman mysteries about Gordianus the
Finder.

In other areas of fiction, I have enjoyed Jane Austen and Paul Auster,
Lewis Carroll and Edgar Allen Poe, among others. In Spanish, Jorge
Luis Borges, Arturo PÃrez Reverte (especially La Carta EsfÃrica and El
Club Dumas), and Alejandro Dolina.

If you are interested in linguistics, I recommend
The Origin of Language by Merrit Ruhlen.

A few suggestions in history and anthropology:

Burning Water Laurette SÃjournÃ
Popol Vuh Translated by Dennis Tedlock
Lords of Sipan Kirkpatrick
Courtesans and Fishcakes James Davidson
Life and Death in Shanghai Nien Cheng
Buddhism in India Gail Omvedt
also her biography of Dr. Ambedkar, leader of the Dalits
A Vietcong Memoir Truong Nhu Tang
The Forbidden Bestsellers
of Pre-Revolutionary France Robert Darnton

It is interesting to compare these two:
Marquesan Sexual Behavior Suggs
The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead Derek Freeman
(I.e., the Samoan girls lied to Mead, claiming a life style
which in fact is rather Marquesan than Samoan.)

If you buy some of these books, or any books, I recommend
yu do it in a way that doesn't identify you to Big Brother.
Pay cash, in a store.

For the sake of your friendships, please don't get a copy
with digital handcuffs (DRM, Digital Restrictions Management).
See DefectiveByDesign.org for more explanation.

In particular, don't buy them from Amazon unless/until Amazon
gives you a way to buy anonymously and without DRM.