You will die a stupid man. I am happy to listen to some Coltrane and read a book over playing a video game any day. Most if not all of Steinbeck's works, George Orwell's, Dostoyevsky, the list goes on. I certainly do not fancy reading anything about LOTR or Harry Potter in particular. Stay classy. Do not read the same books as 14 year old girls.
I feel like Reading should be reserved for when you have the best eye site for reading, Ages 8-46 after that just be as active as possible, or at least that's my plan. Although I would like to read "Where The Red Fern Grows" one last time before I die.
Don't get me wrong, i enjoy a good read now and then, but I prefer to be more Active in my final days, i mean no disrespect to your final wishes.
Some books I would recommend War of the Worlds, Lord of the flies, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Outsiders, Paths of Glory, and Of Mice and Men.
I have read Lord of the Flies (It was better the second time around), Of Mice and Men (Awesome), and The Outsiders (Though it was while ago), and I own War of The Worlds and All is Quiet on the Western Front but have yet to read either of them. I would recommend Ender's Games, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Gods Themselves, Brave New World, Naked, Dante's Inferno (Don't read it in English if it isn't a native language, but if English is your native language use the Longfellow translation) A Farewell to Arms (Or Old Man and the Sea), Long Days Journey Into Night (A fantastic play), and Black Riders and Other Lines (a book of poetry) You can find some classic books in pdf form here- planetbook.com
Here is what I've got for right now, in addition to many of the mentions here: The Wheel of Time series: For anyone with an interest in some hard-core, high-level fantasy novels, this is the series that I would recommend. The Host: Yes, it was written by she-who's-name-we-do-not-speak-for-ruining-vampires-for-the-rest-of-us, but if you can mostly ignore the romance stuff [not entirely though, because it brings up some interesting issues], there are quite a few philisophical/ethical/etc. debate starters in it. The writing is pretty mediocre, but not painfully so. It gets the ideas across effectively enough. No, it has nothing to do with vampires or werewolves. Thankfully.
Given that you went through US education, you probably had English reading lists just like everyone else here.
