I'd highly recommend the following
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Propaganda - Edward Bernays. It's the first book every written on the use of propaganda, how it can be used to control a nation and how to make it work. It'll make you see things in a very different perspective. From there move on to other books about propaganda. Use Google or Amazon to search through other books available and find ones that you think will be interesting.
The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein. It's a book about Disaster Capitalism as thought up by the Chicago School of Economics. It's a very interesting read on Corporotism, Globalism and Extreme Capitalism. It also explains about corporations moving into disaster affected areas and blackmail them. It's a hard read for most but if you can hack it there's alot of good info in there.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins. Another book about Extreme Capitalism and how the US government and corporations manipulate the world. A real eye opener.
The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates - Xenophon. Self explanatory really! lol A great starting point for his stuff.
Voltaires Philosophical Dictionary - Voltaire. A brilliant philosopher with ideas on a wide range of subjects. A great starting point for learning about him.
The Republic - Plato. Again, no real explanation needed. An interesting book and a good starting point for his work.
Words of Wisdom from the Dalai Lama - The Dalai Lama. A good starting point for learning the philosophies of Tibetan Buddhism and just Buddhism in general.
The Encyclopedia of Gandhian Thoughts. You can buy the book but there's a website containing alot of what he said. He's often over looked but in my opinion he was a great modern philosopher with a keen insight on things.
http://www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org/encyclopedia/a.htm#ABUSE
The Bible - Various Authors. I'm not religious, nor do I believe in a God as outlined in the Judaic/Abrahamic religions but there are alot of great philosophies and ideas in there, and some great moral tales as well.
The Qu'ran - Mohammed. As above really. If you study the Qu'ran though you should also study the Hadiths. There's contradicting philosophies between the two, and even contradicting philosophies in the Qu'ran (abrogation), but again there are some great ideas and philosophies in there. Most of the best stuff comes from when he was in Medina, before he attacked Mecca.
Buddhism - Here's a nice little site that has some info on Buddhism.
http://www.aimwell.org/Books/Pesala/Buddhism/buddhism.html Picking up any book on the history and teachings of Buddhism is good though. If I was forced to choose a religion then I would choose Buddhism.
Noam Chomsky - Anything by him really is good by Manafacturing Consent is the best place to start. Anti-zionist and great thinker. Here's some of his quotes.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/...am_chomsky.html
Zbigniew Brzezinski - Most of his stuff is worth a read, he's an ex-advisor to Jimmy Carter. I'd highly recommend Between Two Ages as a starting point.
Brave New World/A Brave New World Revisited/The Island - Aldous Huxley. Very forward thinking books about the development of society. Heavy reading but more than worth it.
Animal Farm - George Orwell. This book completely changed the way I think when I was a kid and began my interest in various political structures. It's classified as a kids book but don't let that put you off reading it. The original cartoon is also an excellent watch.
1984 - George Orwell. Another book that changed the way I look at things when I was young. Alot of what is said is relevant today and eerily prophetic.
edit : Oops, there's a couple of fiction books in my suggestions but you shouldn't dismiss it so quickly. Some fictional books can change the way you look or think about things. Even stuff as simple as Grimm Fairy Tales.
