I read The Crying of Lot 49 for my freshman rhetoric class and loooooved it. It was the first book that was that kind of weird that I had come across, and for a class, blew my mind. Reading Pynchon tends to make me paranoid, though. I've had Against the Day in my TBR for almost a decade but it's still daunting and there are so many other books...
For example: New KJ Charles is out and thanks to the magic of pre-ordering is already on my phone, but can I ignore work and spend all day reading it as would clearly be best for everyone? No, I cannot.
I am only partway into The Change but I am really liking it so far. Thanks for mentioning it, Amy and Dana!
I liked The Raven Scholar a whole lot and am very glad that it's the first in a series because I want to learn everything about this world