The War of the Worlds really awakened my curiosity for classic SciFi novels, mainly due to the brilliant form in which it was written. It's laid out as a diary, where a London based writer describing an invasion from Mars of the pre-industrialized England and his struggles to reunite with his wife. 
 Worth to keep in mind is that it was written over a hundred years ago and published at the end of the 19th century. 
 This is the book, after a re-write by Orson Wells for radio, in 1938 scared radio listeners due to its realistic portrayal of an alien invasion.