The Uses of Literature, Italo Calvino: A book of essays on literature, the first half of which were fairly dense pieces about criticism and structure. The second half of the book was more readable, with nice pieces such as "Why Read the Classics?" that made me want to rush out and devour all of Balzac, and a really stunning essay on the stories-within-stories of the Odyssey which made me grateful to have read the first half of the essays after all.
Finite and Infinite Games, James P. Carse: I'm not quite sure how to describe this. The book presents a paradigm of life as play; deadly serious play to those whom choose to play games which can be 'won', delightful play to those who choose to see their interactions as part of an evolving tapestry in which the goal is to open up possibility. This is the sort of book which is definitely not for everyone; it's abstract, arrogant, metaphorical, and definitely not about Game Theory. I enjoyed it a lot, and found the ending positively uplifting.
The Enchanted Horse, Magdalen Nabb: This book is fortunately out of print, so I don't need to figure out if I would want to recommend that people buy it. It was a well-written but very depressing YA novel about a girl whose parents neglect her, and then she finds a magical horse and things become better, and eventually she grows out of such inconvenient desires as wanting her parents to send her to school and stuff like that. Ick.
To the Ends of the Universe, Isaac Asimov: A very basic, very readable book on astronomy that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately it was written in 1967, so some of the information is obsolete. It did make me want to pick up a more recent astronomy book -- actually, it made me wish Asimov was still alive and would update this book, since I think I'm unlikely to find something else both this simple and well-written.
Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs , Richard Bowring (translator): If The Tale of Genji is the world's first novel, then Murasaki Shikibu is the world's first novelist. Unfortunately, very little is known of her life, aside from her diary (which is likely incomplete) and a collection of poetry purported to be her memoir. Richard Bowring's translation is really nice, although the version I read (which is out of print and thus, alas, not the version linked to above) had a lot of dense scholarly bits about how differing translations of particular words change the meaning of entire sections of the diary. Fortunately for those who don't like such things, they were done in sidenotes and thus easily ignorable.
Synners, Pat Cadigan: Why are most of Pat Cadigan's books out of print? This one is near-future science fiction, probably cyberpunk, about neural interfaces, rock music, middle-aged men who hate their jobs, teenagers who are too intelligent for their own good, and how we adapt to technology whether we like it or not. Very complex and character driven, with a definite sense of humour.
Geeks, Jon Katz: Perhaps I was pre-disposed to love this book, as I used my computer skills to move from Oklahoma to the SF Bay Area, and this book is about two guys who use their computer skills to move from Idaho to Chicago. But I like it for much more than that; Jon Katz is an excellent writer, and the story of Jesse and Eric's escape from Idaho mixes perfectly with Katz's musings on the nature of geekdom and his reactions to the nationwide hysteria after the Columbine shootings.
On Art and Artists, Thomas Albright: Columns on art and music by the man who was the SF Chronicle's art critic for over 20 years, until his death from lung cancer in the mid-80's. Intriguing stuff about the purposes of criticism and a lot of information about the SF bay area art scene of the 60's and 70's. Plus scathing commentary on Warhol. I now know much more about modern art, and I even enjoyed it.