Stephen King, for those too stupid to spell.
I never bouthg into King either, however the stuff he wrote under Bachman is pretty good. If you want to scare yourself about what human society and people are capable of I HIGHLY recomend Steven King/Bachman's The Long Walk and to a lesser extent The Running Man (the origianal not the way that Arnonld Shwartzinager messed it up).

As for games (in no real order since the game depends on my mood:

Escape Velocity (Mac)
Civ 2
Counter-Strike (PC)
Team Fortress Classic,Map: Warpath (PC)
SSN i688 by Janes (PC)
Masters of Orion II (PC and Mac)
NHL 2000 (PC)
Mechwarrior 2 (PC and quite possibly the BEST overall game for any mood)
Mechwarrior 4