Should I read the novel?

To the contrary, many fans of this film say the book explains the LSD trip ending. I haven't read the book so I can't comment, but the book might indeed make sense of the film.

Read the book. It tells you what the movie does not.

The book is enjoyable. But you don't need it to see the film. In fact, reading it detracts from the primal experience of the film. The book is prose. The film is poetry.

It’s a good book - enjoy.

In the book, they go to Saturn.

EDIT after the post below mine: The book isn't "source material." The only "source material" was Clarke's short story The Sentinel, which was about finding an alien artifact on the moon and had absolutely nothing to do with 'the dawn of man' or a trip to Jupiter/Saturn or a talking computer or David Bowman or Frank Poole or a stargate or a star child etc. Kubrick and Clarke collaborated from start to finish. Clarke wrote his novel at the same time Kubrick was writing his screenplay.

No. I learned long ago that Kubrick will play fast and loose with source material. I had seen The Shining many times by the time I read King's novel which I actually thought was poorly plotted. I read the novelization of 2001 once. It made clear such scientific things like why the Space Station near the moon is in a perpetual revolving motion (to provide a centrifugal force that creates artificial gravity in the craft). I personally didn't like having everything explained that remained mysterious in Kubrick's film.

Great book, but be warned it leads into a series of books each with a cliffhanger type ending to hook you into the next one. That being said i think its the only scifi series of books i ever read . And i loved most of it, also love childhoods end by aruther c clark

Not at all! The book is terrific, and a very good supplement to the movie. It doesn't spoil anything but rather it deepens your understanding of the movie in ways that I found really fun and enjoyable.