I've read almost everything Updike has ever written. I'm nearly a stalker. He's one of those writers you can go back to and find something new every time. The Centaur I remember as being one of his books that stuck with me for a long time afterwards.

Specifically the opening track, "The Boat Dreams from the Hill." Lyrical, sloppy, poetic, power pop. An underground cult classic, overshadowed by the Nirvana phenomenon, but still genre-defining greatness.

A strange, self-conscious screenplay by Charlie Kaufman adapted from a peculiar book.

His ideas about Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Civil War and four other great American thinkers, show how moral certitude has always been the biggest threat to any kind of lasting peace on the planet, and how great (pragmatic) ideas are our only defense.

I got this when it came out, and it went on to be an Oprah pick and Pulitzer Prize winner. Hopefully it's not prophetic. More frightening than any horror book you'll ever read.