It's better in the original Klingon

Michael Dirda, the Washington Post book reviewer, has what I believe is a weekly online Q&A on books. This week he tries but fails to avoid talking about the Da Vinci code. His first (of many) replies contains some better conspiracy/mystery novels:

I read the first chapter and the thought the prose dull and poor, so never read any more. If you like these sorts of books, I suggest instead Lawrence Norfolk's Lempriere's Dictionary, A.S. Byatt's Possession, Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

It's not all pop fiction though, one question got this response:

Personally, I think a copy of Spinoza's Ethics--ideally in the original Latin--might really impress her.