It's difficult to recommend things without knowing a reader's taste, but I blanket recommend The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination

Theft of Fire is my favorite book in the last ten years for sure.

https://devoneriksen.com/products/theft-of-fire-orbital-spac...

What counts as a good book varies from person to person.

But take a look at anything by Asimov. I have a collection of his short stories and it is a nice read. Oh, and any short story collection by Chekhov.

If you can stomach older English novels: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

How about an Elmore Leonard novel? Very digestible novels from a deceptively skilled craftsman.

Honestly it doesn't matter much, go grab a random book from goodwill. If you do "need" a recommendation, I'd suggest "Roots", I'm reading it now and it's amazingly well written.

One suggestion I would make is to read something from before 1980. No real reason why, but books from 1900 - 1980 work better for me personally, not sure why.

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

Fiction or non-fiction?

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter