*ahem*
I'm going to stick to books, because I feel more qualified to talk about those.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon. The story of a Jewish escape artist smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague in the same crate as the Golem and traveling his way to NYC where he and his cousin become the creators of The Escapist, greatest superhero of his time. It roughly tells the story of all those old comic book creators and how a lot of them got screwed over in the early days. But Chabon's writing style is amazing. Also, Dark Horse has published some comics about The Escapist, written by Chabon himself, if this book doesn't give you enough, and the graphic novel The Escapists, written by Brian K. Vaughan is set in the same cosmology. I will recommend basically anything of Chabon's, including his earlier novels (including Wonderboys, which was made into a movie starring Tobey Macguire and Kirk Douglas) and his newer stuff like Gentlemen of the Road. Oh, this one also won the Pulitzer, which you may have heard of...
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski. He's most well known for his poetry, but his prose is amazing also. This book is more or less a memoir telling about his life from childhood until he finally moves out of his parents house and starts earning his own keep. It's all about growing up in LA during the depression and the characters he writes and the stories he tells are just incredibly interesting. I haven't read any of his other novels, but I can't wait to now that I've read this one.
The Life of David - Robert Pinsky. This is, as the title implies, the story of the life of David, King of the Jews. It's really well researched and tells the story from a perspective not often told. It's way different than the David you'll hear about from Christians and Jews, and it's beautifully written. I had a chance to read this book and then listen to Pinsky talk about it when he visited my school (I was actually asked to give a presentation over the book at a luncheon, and there are very few things more distressing than analyzing a book with the author eating pie only ten feet away from you) and Pinsky is not only a great writer but a great speaker and just a really engaging personality.
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson. Another author I was able to meet, Robinson has only put out two novels, the other is titled Housekeeping, but they are both exceptional. Gilead is the story of a preacher in Gilead, Iowa and is told as if you are reading a series of notes he has left to his son, who he had late in his life and hasn't had the chance to get to know as well as he would like. It's a really good story of family and faith and the struggles that people go through. A lot of people like her other book more, but Gilead won the Pulitzer, so I recommended it... neither is a bad choice.
Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn. This isn't exactly high-literature, but if you want something fun and easy to read, this follow-up to the Star Wars movies is about as good as it gets. Zahn is incredibly good at what he does, and his writing is fun and unpretentious. It's Star Wars, so there's a certain amount of cheese that comes with it, but as far as Star Wars books go, you can't go wrong with Zahn. Only real complaint: not enough Lando.
Other authors: Raymond Chandler, Cormac McCarthy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ursula K LeGuin, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Joseph Heller
Edit: Typos aplenty!