Edgar Allen Poe was the first "serious" author I read; I got in trouble for taking a book to school in third grade. I like the darkness.

Henry David Thoreau was quite the rabble rouser, and his Walden helped inspire my quest for simplicity and connection with nature.

Stephen King is my guilty pleasure; the man would probably be a serial killer if he didn't have writing as an outlet.

I enjoy almost all of Stephen King's books. I also enjoy reading almost everything by Orson Scott Card.

"The Gold Finch" by Donna Tartt (some of her sentences are perfect).

Favourite author has to be Terry Pratchett, closely followed by Neil Gaiman, both for their different way of looking at the world. Richard Morgans altered carbon trilogy is excellent, as are the polity series by Neal Asher (both science fiction)
Spike Milligan, Greg Bear, Arthur C Clarke, Alan Moore, Christopher Moore and many others, these are just off the top of my head.

Alice Hoffman, I love her magic realism.
Also Armistead Maupin, especially "Tales of the City" and "Maybe the Moon."

Thanks to a Victorian Literature class in college I learned to love English novelist Thomas Hardy. "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" is a favorite, and so is "Return of the Native." Hardy always created magnificent heroines that I could not help but fall in love with. I also enjoy Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice" particularly. Among American novelists, Thomas Wolfe is a favorite. "Look Homeward Angel" is his first and best novel. I loved his detailed and vivid descriptions of scenes. I also enjoyed all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels, as well as William Faulkner. Among non-fiction writers it's got to be Hunter S Thompson. I've read about everything he's written and enjoyed all of it.

Tom Clancy, for his ability to write 16 paragraphs describing a brick wall and it still be interesting. Favorite book - Red Storm Rising.

Stephen King - wasn't a huge fan until I read his Magnum Opus, and realized every single book he had written was in the same universe.
Favorite book(s) - The Dark Tower series.

Brandon Sanderson - for world building and character development. Truly a master of his craft.
Favorite book(s) - Mistborn Trilogy.

Kurt Vonnegut
Marcus Aurelius
Lao Tzu
Sun Tzu

ann rice loved her novels about witches and new orleans
and jane eyre was a book i read many times in high school just loved it
fav poem is rhyme of the acnient mariner

Any poem from Charles Bukowski.

The lord of the rings.I loved those those books, as well as the hobbit.I had mixed fellings about making making them. But to my joy, Peter Jactction was a grateful co- writer, but a great director. for for him bring my favorite set of my books to life was awesome.

Charles Fraiser's Return to cold mountain....Hemmingwayesque in his writing.

Mark Twain & Terry Pratchett because of the wit & humor.

Franz Kafka - The Trial. The fear of unknown consequence for unknown reason. The poetry of Robert Frost and Dylan Thomas

Inferno by Dante, IT by Stephen King, American Psycho by Brent Easton Ellis

In my early teens , Andre' Norton started me on a SciFi binge - Issac Asimov , Robert Heinline , soon followed , LOVE Terri Pratchett's witches of his Disc World series . Robert Asprin's Myth series . J.R.R. Tolkin , J.K.Rawlings ,

I read the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series and I loved it. I also really enjoyed Dan Brown.

Thanks everyone! I'm always looking for great books to read so really appreciate this. Some of my favorites are Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Its a story about his life as a heroin addict / bank robber and his escape from prison in Australia to India where he lived for a time before turning himself in to escape India. He's a brilliant gifted writer, paints his world in words as I've rarely experienced. [en.m.wikipedia.org]
another one is called The Demon Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark by the late astronomer - Carl Sagan Its one of the great must read books in my opinion.

Ken Follet is another author I got into for a while ... I really enjoyed 'Pillars if the Earth' and 'Whiteout' [en.m.wikipedia.org]

One of the best ever fun reads was Robin Sloans "Mr. Penumbras 24 Hour Bookstore. Its an Audible book narrated by Ari Fliakos ( great voice). also really enjoyed Ready Player One ( another Audible book) [audible.com]

1. B. Traven -documented the struggle of the marginalized people's in Mexico and Central America in fiction (wrote -Treasure of the Sierra Madre - most popular, but not his best

2. J. R. R. Tolkien -need I say more

3. Umberto Eco - Name of the Rose and Faucsult's Pendulum -excellent intellectual writer

4. Itso Calving - anything he's written -another unsurpassed intellectual writer

5. Jean Giano - Horseman on the Roof (novel sbout Black Plague in southern France - compelling - made into a movie)

LOTR, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Song of Ice and Fire, The Heart Is A Linely Hunter, The Seeking Sword, The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, The Lady In The Lake, The Blind Barber, The Chosen, The Painted Bird, The Sound And The Fury, The Trrial, The Metamorphosis, The Penal Colony, The Plague, The Apology, Candid, Moby Dick, The House of the Seven Gables............

Generally I mostly read non fiction particularly history and WW2 and political books. Michael Dyson, the genius, recently wrote a book on truth and the effects of racism on African Americans. But my favorite fiction is “To Kill a Mocking bird ( Harper Lee, I think) but there are so many books that when I’ve gone to a huge school or city library and almost have an anxiety attack I get so overwhelmed by the shear number of books

My favorite author is Dean Koontz. I just love his style of writing.

My favorite book is "Killer Animals" by Edward Ricutti. I used to read it every other weekend at my Dad's house. When I graduated Basic Training, he gave it to me. Now it's been all over the World with me.