I would heartily recommend King Leopold's Ghost. It's about the discovery of the raping of the Congolese people in the 1800s by the Belgians. Also, if you've never read The Great Gatsby, I can also highly recommend it. The end of the book is, in my opinion, some of the best written prose ever put to paper in English literature. Lastly, The 13th Warrior by Micheal Crichton. Don't bother with the movie, it's completely naff, however, the book is a roller coaster and really dives into Norse mythology and its people from the perspective of an outsider.

One of my favourite books with a somewhat exciting tale is "Survivors and Bandits".

It's based on DayZ and you can buy it on Amazon.

I would reccomend Stephen King's The Long Walk. It's a story about children that have to walk across America and let's just say something bad will happen to them if walk slower than a certain speed. Very good read I ended up reading it when I was severly sick a couple of years ago.

I would reccomend you 1984  by George Orwell , I am really enjoying it.

if you're also into nonfiction, then read Ernst Junger's memoirs "Storm of Steel". It might not be post-apocalyptic but he really does carry that horror of war well in his diaries.

I would recommend the Eisenhorn Onimbus, great 40k book. It is the story of an Inquisitor and it explores some of the darker things about 40k

The Halo books are very interesting. They explain most of the lore sort of like the behind the scene action. For example, I think there's one that explains the time while Chief is in cryogenic sleep. If not, World War Z is an amazing action pack book. The movie was crap so don't feel like you won't read it because of the movie.

Dune was a rather impressive messianic novel about a young man named Paul.

All of William Gibsons books, seriously, read em, pronto.

@Tekkers
A series of books, the death zone, Russian writers.Severe post-apocalyptic world inhabited by intelligent mechanisms and other things.
P.S.
I am writing a book about the post-apocalypse, can you ever not read)

Roadside picnic is the book that inspired the s.t.a.l.k.e.r. series of games and is a good post apocalyptic read.

I'd recommend reading Nineteen Eighty-Four (Often published as 1984). A hardcore dystopian novel that inspired the V for Vendetta Comic and Movie.

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy is always a great read. The series is hilarious, but ends horribly(apparenly Doug didn't want to write anymore, but they forced him and he retaliated by writing a bad ending).

Another good series I'm reading is Monster Hunter International. It's somewhat similar to the show Supernatural in the sense that they hunt and kill all kinds of monsters. The general populace doesn't know monsters exist, but the government does. Teddy Roosevelt started a bounty system where if any person were to kill a monster, depending on the type, they could get paid a lot. There are a few private companies of "hunters" who deal with all kinds of things. It's a pretty good read if you like senseless violence, detailed descriptions of guns(the author is a gun nut), lovable characters, and mythical creatures. Starts out with Owen Pitt(main character) who ends up having to kill his boss because he turned into a werewolf and gets a visit from two government agents who threaten him to keep quiet about the situation. Then he gets offered a job in a private company. I won't spoil any more. It's a pretty damn good read if you like that kind of stuff.

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross are great - they're Lovecraftian spy thrillers / urban fantasy and each one is written in the style of a different famous author. I'd highly endorse them!

Well, I've been getting into many of the classics lately. Just finished Brave New World, excellent read though you may have already read it. Plenty of great Sci-Fi books out there: Dune, Ender's Game, the Foundation Trilogy, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Plethora of others. IF your in the mood for something short I know of quite a few short stories you could read. I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream, The Rats in the Walls, the Last Question. All great short stories.

Good topic, there's so many great books, cool to share some, and discover some too.

One that really got me, "The Stand" by Stephen King. Really cool story, and kinda post apocalyptic so, I guess since we're all Fallout fan here, it's a book that most people here would like, i think.

I think I already posted about this one in antoher book related topic but it's too good, i can't recommend it enough. "Musashi", by Eiji Yoshikawa. A fictionalized account of the life of Myiamoto Musashi, one of the greatest swordsman that ever lived. If you like samurais, or simply interested by Japanese culture, then go for it. One of the best book I've read.

Some of you may know this one. But this one is not for everyone I think, cause you have to be familiar with the universe it deals with. "The Silmarillion", by Tolkien and his son. It's like the bible of Tolkien universe. it tells pretty much everything that happens from the creation of the world to the War of the Rings. It brings life into Tolkien works. It can be hard to read and comprehend everything the first time though(lots of names, and locations, and things happening), it's relatively small, but deals with an enormous amount of content, and if you're a Tolkien fan, it's a must have. You cannot fully comprehend the size and depth of Tolkien world until you've read it.

Finally, two books by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are not his most known works, but they're still quite good. "The White Company" and "Sir Nigel". "The White Company", tells the story of a young englishman, of low nobility, that gets enlisted in a lord's army, Sir Nigel, in the middle of the Hundred Years War, between France and England. And "Sir Nigel", which was released after "The White Company" but depicts events that happens way before it, it tells the youth of Sir Nigel. So the two books are kinda connected, but you can pretty much read them in the order you like. They are really good.

I mostly read pulp, from what you mentioned so far that's not what you're looking for. But if you're looking for a nice distraction, the Witcher novels are very entertaining. Even more than the games.

Return Man by V.M. Zito, if you´re looking for some zombie-apocalypse type books.

@piet33 Yeah, I loved Return Man. I think I'm going to read that again.

I've found that most books I read are video game lore story books, like the Halo books or the Mass Effect books (witch I completely recomend, written by the legendary Drew Karpyshyn, the writter of Star Wars KotOR and Mass Effect games ). I'm starting to get into other books myself so I can't really recommend any others except for them.