Debated about joining this, but since it's skewing young, here goes.
Movies: film noir, especially pre-code 30's movies. After that they produced mainly pap for decades. Anything by Alfred Hitchcock, he was a giant. Later, the original Cape Fear -- Robert Mitchum still scares the bejezus out of me! The Hammer horror flicks were great. I loved the Incredible Dr. Phibes, Vincent Price was wonderful. There was one very dark film, Boris Karloff and Bella Lugosi, wherein Boris manages to capture Bella in his Bauhaus castle and proceeds to flay him alive over extenuated dialog. Pretty ghoulish for something we could see on Saturday night after midnight. You youngsters can look up flaying, and maybe a cinemaphile can give us the name of that movie. And yes, back then we had 3 or at most 4 tv channels to watch, and the horror (or sci-fi) movie on Saturday was basically cheap filler until the test patterns popped up and we were done for the night. A different age.
Books: there are so many, can't do them justice. Just to mess with those of you who have promoted the KJ version of the bible, oh come on, how about a closer translation to the words which were actually put down? Translations are important, don't you think? Anchor Bible has a number of books which didn't make the politico-religious cut at a certain time in history, well worth reading. Now, if you are willing to risk losing your grasp on conventional thinking entirely, try Zechariah Sitchen's The 12th Planet: the Earth Chronicals. You might never return to your old world view. Could quite possibly blow your mind. Of course, a bit of Zen Buddhism could do the same lol.
Oh, I have to mention the movie that scared the crap out of me. Trinity College, free Saturday night horror flick. We were from a boarding school, stoned (not recommending it lol), 1969-70, and the movie was George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead. After it was done, we fled to our vehicle, nothing else to do!