Philip K Dick

Philip K Dick may be my favorite writer (if it's not Hermann Hesse)

Even if you haven't heard his name before you are probably familiar with some of Dick's work because many of his stories (he wrote many short stories) and novels have been made into well known movies.

Most recently A Scanner Darkly came out last summer which was based on the Dick novel by the same name.

Wait, I just realized this is way too much work.

But what I'm trying to say is - I love this dude's work. It's fantastic. I actually suggest starting off with his short stories because what I love most about Dick's work isn't so much his writing but his IDEAS.