he Introductory ones

(The ones that you read in Sociology 101; the primers)

Sociology by Anthony Giddens
Sociology: Themes and Perspectives by Michael Haralambos

The Classics
(The ones which are foundations to a sociological understanding and expertise)
Sociological Imagination by C.W. Mills -To have an idea of what it just means to
be a Sociologist. The first and most basic and most endemic thing to wearing th
e hat of a Sociologist.
The Social Construction of Reality by P.L. Berger and T. Luckmann
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman--You have been warne
d that Goffman will drill a hole into your brain and safely and strongly secure
his position for rest of the life you live.
Stigma by Erving Goffman to understand the why-s and how-s of those who are marg
inalized because they don't "fit" to...........us.
Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault
The Theory of Communicative Action by Jurgen Habermas
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels--Like it or hate it, y
ou cannot possibly hope to learn about Sociology and people by ignoring this mos
t provocative argument on humanity and social structure.
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Division of Labour in Society by Emile Durkheim
Economy and Society by Max Weber
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Mind, Self and Society by George Herbert Mead
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber--I've put this under
classics just to be fasciantated by an analysis that connects religion with ec
onomic behaviour.
Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm
Sociological Theory and Philosophy

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

The Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper
The Sociological Tradition by Robert Nisbet
Foundations of Social Theory by James Coleman
Studies in Ethnomethodology by Harold Garfinkel
Reassembling the Social by Bruno Latour
The Constitution of Society by Anthony Giddens
The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz
Madness and Civilization and Discipline and Punish and The Order of Things by Mi
chel Foucault
The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society by David
Garland.
Outsiders by Howard Becker
Racism without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Race Matters by Cornel West
Sociological Research Methods

Social Research Methods and Quantity and Quality in Social Research by Alan Brym
an--The basic Bryman.
The Rules of the Sociological Method by Emile Durkheim--Yes, you should still re
ad this old book just to understand research philisophies, research methods and
how they impact how you interprete and see the world. Very essential.
The Discovery of Grounded Theory by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss
The Language of Social Research by Paul Lazarsfeld and Morris Rosenberg
The Micro-Macro Link by Smelser et al.
Constructing Social Theories by Arthur Stinchcombe
The Life Course: A Sociological Introduction by Stephen Hunt
Contemporary Classics
Risk Society byUlrich Beck
Reading Capital by L. Althusser
Postmodern Ethics and Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Baumann
Weight of the World and Distinction by Pierre Bourdieu (I wish I could put 'all
books' by Bourdieu here).
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
Orientalism by Edward Said
A Critique of Postcolonial Reason and Can the Subaltern Speak? by Gayatri Chakra
vorty Spivak
The Active Society by Amitai Etzioni
The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures by Jean Baudrillard
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Feminism is for Everybody by Bell Hooks
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky a
nd Edward S. Hermann