A Canticle for Leibowitz is set in the aftermath of a horrible nuclear war. The survivors blamed science, and killed intellectuals and burned all the books they could get their hands on. A monastery in the desert of the western US is one of the few places on earth to preserve any knowledge, and the book follows the monks of the monastery in three sections over the following thousand years.

The monks are witty, wry, and funny as hell, and they make the book into an incredibly fun read.

It's an amazing exploration of the nature of knowledge and religion. The book is also an incredible window in the late 50s and early 60s, when nuclear weapons felt very real and we had to begin to come to terms with the horrible weapons we'd invented. That's two for the price of one folks - spend some time in the nuclear wasteland, and spend some time in 1959 too.

And, as always, a few related books we love that we recommend: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (and Heinlein's Double Star too for good measure).