I'm curious what novels you guys like and why. Hoping to pick up some ideas.
I'll start.
My favorite novel would have to be Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. It's a relatively controversial novel as it's had accusations of being propaganda for a certain far-right ideology but I'd argue it's quite the opposite but I digress. The setting is basically humanity fighting giant alien bugs in space but that is really just a backdrop in my opinion and very little of it is actual fighting. It is really about the relationship between a nation and its citizens. I'm not sure but I believe Heinlein came up with the concepts of exosuits and orbital drop pods in the novel.

Another series of novels I adore is Harry Turtledove's In the Balance series which is an alternate history series. The premise is that during WW2 aliens (not the traditional little grey men in flying saucers) invade Earth forcing most countries to at least temporally set aside their animosities to fight back. The aliens (5ft tall walking lizards that refer to themselves simply as the Race) basically have and use the same technology we have today besides star travel and working cryogenics. They also simply want to conquer us and add us to their empire, while I would call them imperialistic I wouldn't call them evil in fact a lot of it is told from their perspectives as well as a multitude of different human perspectives.

But enough of my rambling what are some of your favorite novels?

Fight Club and Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk, love his writing style. Coming to terms with your identity and place in the world, these two books have a very special way of looking at that.

The Lord of the Rings (the complete edition with all three novels) is my favorite book. I love the amount of visualizing detail that J. R. R. Tolkien using in his writing, allowing us to get a great perspective on the ins and outs of Middle Earth. The Lord of The Rings trilogy for example left out so much from the novel that couldn't be added in because of the amount of time it would take to get all the details compared to most novels.

Lord Of The Rings Book Spoilers:

Even though it has taken me years and I am only 300 pages in I would definitely recommend IT by Stephen King. It's one of the darkest/ mature novels that I ever read; if you want a book that legitimately terrifies you than that is your best bet.

My favorite audio book would be the legends Star Wars novel called Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. It provides so much background for the universe, pre and during Episode 1, plus it makes Plaugueis into a really compelling sith (showing how Palpatine got to where he was headed all because of this sith training him as his master). If you a hardcore star wars fan and want to start with the novels this is definitely will be your best bet.

It has been so long since I read the Hunger Games and Harry Potter Books but I would recommend them as well. Even you want something easier to read I would recommend both series, though I have more of a love for Harry Potter both are still good series to start if you want to get into reading novels.

The Prydain Cycle by Lloyd Alexander comes to mind.

The one I keep coming back to is The Postman (well, that and the Nero Wolfe novels, but that's a different matter). I imagine most everyone who's a NV fan has read it, but it still gets its hooks into me every time and I think of it at least once or twice a year. I also seem to do a yearly reread of The Master of Go. Something about the prose in both just hooks me and I chew through them in a night or three.

EDIT:
Well damn, that's more of a necro than I realized. My bad.