There are so many. Fiction or nonfiction?
Fiction- Robert Lludlum
Non- Sun Tzu or Erwin Rommell
Insight- Robert Fulghum

I have so many books I enjoy. Many I read once a year. Tolkien was a fantastic story teller. The likes we have not seen till Rolling came about.

Chuck Palahniuk
James Ballard

Many many many... but Robert Jordan takes the cake.

Not to be terribly insulting to anybody, but these choices are sort of pathetic. Not to be a snob for the cannon or anything, but undoubtedly the sheer mastery of Proust, Kafka, Joyce, Svevo, Byron, Dante, Goethe, Tolstoy, Borges, De Foe, Austen, Faulkner or Shakespeare (to begin an inadequate list) overwhelms Palahniuk's cheap shock-fiction or Rowling's near-illiterate hackery (evidenced by a fan who can't spell her name right...)?

why are there so many people who criticize Rowling just because, apparently her books aren't written well enough or something. The fact is that they're an enthralling read and are great books. Stop pretending you're such a master of literature and see books for what they are, entertainment.

well put bishop.

@lulzworth Yes your are being a snob. Just because your taste runs fruther off the main than most, does not mean you have to be insulting.

i enjoy George Orwell (entertaining and intriguing intellectually)

H Turtledove, A.C. Clarke, I Asimov, L. Nivan, and Homer of the Iliad and Odyssey. Dickins, M Twain.

... Is this going to surprise anyone?

Ayn Rand.

No. It's not.

I love Rand!

yeah i love Orwell, really makes you think, but an interesting story.
Also, they're not too long

Hmm, I didn't know anyone else whod even heard of Turtledove till now.
I personally love Harry Potter, but I tend toward science fictiony type stuff.
Any one heard of Kiln People?

I loved the odyssey: sing to me of the man muse the man of twists and turns... great epic tale. the illiad was more tedious and I could only get through the first 12 pages or so b4 tapping out

Vonnegut is the best, far and away. Though I very much enjoy several non-fiction authors no one knows, since non-fiction is mostly what I read.

did you read them in latin?
i studied parts of odyssey in class

JRR Tolkein, Brandon Sanderson, Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Rowling, Walter Scott, Hiromu Arakawa (if you allow manga), Max Brooks

Tolkien (IMHO) was the father of Fantasy Fiction and still holds the most revered spot on my list and as such would be my favorite, but here's to a host of others.
Robert Jordan
Brandon Sanderson
Terry Brooks
Madeline L'Engle
Ursula Le Guin
George R. Martin
Kate Eliot
Melanie Rawn
Judith Tarr
Jennifer Fallon
Tad Williams
J.K. Rowling (yes, I thought the series was very well done)
Shakespeare
Robert Heinlein

yeah robert jordan too

@otto The Iliad was a high school requirement. :P

The Odyssey was for me, I tried the Illiad on my own, but it did not speak to me (in it's archaic English translation)

I know Poe is a poet, but his short stories are great as well. He is soooo awesome!! I am currently reading Hawthorne's, "The Scarlet Letter" and it is very well done!

Twain is another of my favorites. I admit my spelling is quite bad. I can get over it. I read much better than I spell. The funny part is even though it was misspelled you understood it lulz. Funny how that works. The real irony is Shakespeare is on your list of favorites. If I remember correctly he misspelled a few words, intentionally of course, but incorrect just the same.

Twain is a good satirist, I agree. His writing has such realistic depth through the complex voices of his characters (Cannibalism in the Cars was a great short)

Huck Finn is one I read annually.

I follow all of Ted Dekker's works. He's the only author I have continually read new books from.

Terry Brooks
George R R Martin
Scott Lynch
David Morrell
Orson Scott Card

These are all equally my favorite authors.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Ian Fleming (James Bond)
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert A. Heinlein
Leslie Charteris (The Saint)
Charles Dickens
Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
Edgar Allan Poe
William Shakespeare
Victor Hugo
Frank Herbert (Dune)
Ken Follet
Robert Ludlum (Jason Bourne)
Harry Turtledove
Piers Anthony (Incarnations of Immortality more than Xanth)
Orson Scott Card (the Ender/Bean novels)
Mark Frost (if you like Sherlock Holmes, you'll enjoy his two novels about Sir Arthur)