There are lots of choices I can think of. Here are a few.

FICTION

* The Road by McCarthy would be high on my list for the best book in the last 10 years. 

* The curious incident of the dog at night time (I think that's the title). Short and well-written. 

* Several books of the Harry Potter series

* Books by Chuck Palakniuk are great to read and very 'modern'. Fight club is the most famous, but several others are nice: Invisible Monsters and Choke are ranked highest on Amazon.

* Douglas Coupland has a unique writing style, but it may not be to your liking. Generation X is probably his best, others such as Microserfs are already a bit dated I think.

* Game of Thrones (as you mentioned yourself)

* Ben Elton has a couple of nice (hilarious) books, Dead Famous is about a reality show. If you don't like him as a stand-up comedian - he's better as writer.

* Stephen Fry's Making History is funny and thought-provoking. Hippopotamus is also a great read. 

NON-FICTION

Lots of popular science books are great to read, e.g.

* Freakonomics by Dubner

* Black Swan by Taleb

* The Tipping Point and Blink by Gladwell

* The truth about dishonesty (I'm reading this right now) and Predictably Irrational by Ariely

Thank you, that's a great selection ! I'll look them up on Amazon. I also like unique and "weird" stories. Well, it's another rather old book, but one of my favorite books of all time was Froth on the Daydream (L'écume des jours) of Boris Vian.

Based on your preferences, I would recommend:

Everything by Kafka - it's a much easier read than most people imagine.

Everything by George Orwell, starting with 1984.

1Q84 by Haruka Murakami.  Difficult to describe, but absolutely unique.

You should think about joining the Glocals Geneva International Book Club and coming to our meetings.  It is a great source of recommendations for reading and you have the chance to discuss what you have read in intelligent, multicultural company.  1Q84 is scheduled for discussion later this year.

See also: http://www.mostinfluentialbooks.com which is our official web site.

Something like Fiction and Mystery

The book of Mirdad

A Lighthouse and a Haven

by Mikhail Naimy

I tried to find the ISBN but alas couldnt get it.

Happy reading

Thank you to both of you.

It's probably my taste, but not the period I'm looking for.

Kafka, I've read most of his works as a teenager, and I still have nightmares now of being a bug with an apple stuck in my back, dying slowly in the corner of a filthy room... + beginning of the 20th century...

I've tried reading some Haruki Murakami books (Dance, Dance, Dance and Kafka on the shore), but that's not my type of fiction. I could give it a try again, but not immediately.

From George Orwell, I've read the "Time Machine". I liked it a lot, but it's again stories from the beginning of the 20th century.

Yes, I'll join the international book club.

Thank you Dorothy, I've added those to my list.

I also had a bad start with Murakami, finding him rather depressing, but 1Q84 is more contemporary and less restrained than his previous works.  It is often categorized as sci-fi / fantasy, although I think it's his intricate observations of Japanese culture that make it interesting.

For pure sci-fi, I can recommend the Culture series by Ian M Banks (recently and sadly deceased).  The first chapter of all of them can be a bit challenging because of the way he piles in so many characters, but after that they are very good.

 I would highly recommend Under the Skin by Michael Faber. Just amazing.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Skin_%28novel%29

 Apparently a film is coming out next month based on it.

The Time Traveler's Wife