Atlas Shrugged

author
Ayn Rand

factoid #1
According to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club, Atlas Shrugged is the second most influential book for Americans today (after the bible). It's a toss up as to which is more terrifying: that the bible is #1 or that Atlas Shrugged is #2.

what really matters
The proper brainwashing Rand gives you. The story is immediately engrossing (particularly if you read it in high school), and gets stranger and stranger as it progresses. By the end, the book is part philosophical propaganda and part Batman & Robin adventure story. Roughly 800 pages into this 1,075 page book is something like a 90 page monologue—but by then you don't care because the book's like crack: completely addictive and unrefined as hell.

strange philosophical genre to go along with this novel
Objectivism

other people who liked this book (or at least say they did)
Most of the Western world, apparently.

some other things this author has written
The Fountainhead
Anthem
We the Living
The Virtue of Selfishness
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Philosophy: Who Needs It