My all-time favorite author is John Irving. I've read his entire output and I anxiously away each new novel. If you just want his best works, go for The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules or The Hotel New Hampshire. I read a lot of different genres though Sci-Fi - you can't beat Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash Historical - ANYTHING by Bernard Cornwell, but specifically the Sharpe's Series, the Arthur series or the Alfred series. Non-Fiction - Big Secrets by William Poundstone, and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Have you seen the T.V series with Sean Bean? It's just as good as the books and is definitely worth a watch!
I'm not trolling but.... why? Thoughts on objectivism aside the novels she writes are offensively pedestrian.
Hell yeah I read that for an electronic literature class, instantly became one of my favorites. Danielewski's something else
I've got to third (or fourth) on Chuck Palahniuk and add in Kurt Vonnegut and Alexander Dumas. Also started working on a book by Nice Sheffield. I'm just not too sure about it yet.
Kant, Nietzche, Emerson, Einstein, Frost, Buddha (Guatama), Twain, Plutarch, Heidegger, Camus, Hill, Orwell
Ursula K. Le Guin, love her sci-fi and fantasy. The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, and The Earthsea series are her most notable works. Philip K. Dick, Recently finished Ubik which Inception resembles in some ways. Started reading Valis which is based on an experience of Dick's. The main character's name is Horselover Fat which I find awesome. I also have read a few of other such as Maze of Death and The Solar Lottery which explore some really cool ideas for the time. Carl Sagan, read Pale Blue Dot and I could not find words to describe the feelings I had while reading. His books turned me to his tv series which I enjoy immensely.