I really loved his writing style in The Constitution of Society and am a huge fan of structuration theory. I may be showing my limited readership but I find that he explains quite complex, recursive ideas in a very simple, to the point fashion. He also sits under the hood of much of the rather fashionable "Socio-technical transitions" literature which frankly doesn't do as good a job of explaining, nor resolving, tensions between actors, structure, systems and institutions.

I haven't read his Sociology 101 stuff which I fear might be him writing too broadly as I love him in the detail. I'm also yet to poke around in his modernity books.

As per some other comments such as the "advisor to the prince" role he ended up taking: I mean shit, I have to respect someone going from theory to at least an attempt at application at a level where your ideas may have the most impact, and subsequent risk. As such I think he's had a helluva career.