Lets talk about good authors.

[Berserker119]

Ted Dekker, Tom Clancy, Dan Brown and Rick Riordan are my favorites.

 

[Ekonk]

Margaret Atwood. She writes good books, simple as that. Take either Oryx & Crake or the Blind Assassin. The Robber Bride seems to be good, but I've yet to read that one.

 

[Communist partisan]

Dostojevskij I think I spelled it right.... not sure

 

[similar.squirrel]

Nobody has mentioned Gerald Durrell, so I'll do the honours. He was a zoologist, and had a knack for describing people and animals in a really hilarious way.
PG Wodehouse is also worth a gander, though I'm sure most of you know about him already.

Other than that..I like classic science-fiction. Writers like Asimov or Clarke..
Vonnegut..Philip K. Dick..Lovecraft, when he isn't being a flaming racist..disjointed sentences..

 

[QuirkyTambourine]

I'm a huge Bradbury fan, The October Country is one of my favorites, all of his short stories are great.

Also there's Kafka, just finished In The Penal Colony, it's a bit odd but definitely worth picking up.

I like Niven's Ringworld series, and Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers trilogy

And you can't forget Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut

...I'm a bit of a sci-fi nerd

 

[SmilingKitsune]

Ursula LeGuin writes fantastic fantasy, the Earthsea quartet is one of the finest series I've ever read.
Truman Capote is another writer who has yet to be mentioned here, Other voices, other rooms is exellent.
J.D Salinger and John Steinbeck are also favourites of mine.

 

[Hallow'sEve]

John Steinbeck
Robert Louis Stevenson
Graham Greene (The Power and the Glory)
Poe
Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express)
Lewis Carrol
J.K. Rowling (because everyone's read Harry Potter)

 

[Lord Legion]

Abdul Alhazred, wrote the necronomicon

 

[xDarc]

Richard Fucking Laymon! I always sell you guys on him every time a thread like this comes up and none of you ever check him out.

He's written over 30 novels, was a good personal friend of Dean Koontz, and he passed away in 2001. He's one of the most over-looked and under-rated horror novelists in the business.

The antagonists in his books are typically all kinds of perverts and psychopaths, there's usually a young woman or man protagonist and a love interest, lots of gore, lots of sex and lots of tension and suspense. His writing is descriptive but efficient and punchy, his literary knowledge and references to other books and authors vast, (He was an English prof. at a university) and his stories are just out there.

Richard Laymon will make you think twice about doing something as simple as going out for a walk in the late hours of the night, in your own neighborhood.

See for yourselves. I've read everything he's written and there were only two books I was "meh" about.

 

[sunburst]

Most of my favorite have already been mentioned but I also love Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo & The Three Musketeers), Charles Bukowski (Post Office & Women) and Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game & Lost Boys). The entire Ender Saga is absolutely brilliant.

 

[Doclector]

Stephen king, the master himself, to whom I apparently bear an uncanny reseblance if my friends are to be believed.
Max Brooks, all of his zombie books are excellent.

 

[CrashBang]

Philip Pullman is a brilliant author. His Dark Materials are the greatest books I've ever read. However, I just finished reading his 'The Good Man Jesus And The Scoundrel Christ' and while it presents a very interesting take on the story of Jesus it really does drive the point home. As an atheist who tries to keep an open mind and as a big fan of his I thought I'd gobble this one up, but it really dances around the point it's trying to make until the last few chapters where it basically screams:

Spoiler

"In the future the church will be full of paedophiles and will twist the story of a great and honest man into a pile of meaningless drivel in order to gain more money and power!!"

as if that's something even Christians don't already know

My other two favourite authors are Dean Koontz and Stephen King. I'm sure most people have read some of their work at some point, but they're still worth mentioning because they're aaawesoome!

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

PG Wodehouse is my hands down favourite

And Terry Pratchett and Walter Moers.

Amazing stuff.

 

[SimpleChimp]

I'm surprised how few people said OSC, and also glad to see the Salvatore fan base.

For my money:

Salvatore: The Crimson Shadow series, Highwayman
Orson Scott Card: Empire, Ender's series, Shadow Series
Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers (favorite book of all time)
Frank Herbert: Dune
Dean Koontz: Odd Thomas
Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (odd title for the list, but it was really good with the greek mythos.)

 

[AvsJoe]

I'm a huge fan of the recently departed Michael Crichton. He's written several incredible novels, many of which have become movies like Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Sphere, Disclosure, Congo, The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Eaters of the Dead (which became The 13th Warrior), and Timeline. I also fully recommend Prey, The Terminal Man, and his last novel Pirate Latitudes.

 

[Fidelias]

1. Jim Butcher: For creating my favorite series(Dresden Files) and creating the best main character I have ever known in any game, movie, or book.

2.Timothy Zahn: For being the only one who can actually write a great Star Wars book.

 

[Milford Cubicle]

I haven't read the rest of the posts, but....

1. Lee Child
2. George R. R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series is immense.
3. Anything by Robert Ludlum.
4. Everything by Bernard Cornwell.
5. Everything by Bill Bryson.

 

[diablomaki]

stephen king (very few books by him i dont love)
terry goodkind (wizard's 1st rule)
Salvatore (drizzt) for shizzt
e.e. knight freakin (vampire earth) FTW
paul s. kemp (eravis cale) damn eravis is a smooth operator
heinlein (anything he touches is gold, even his worst stuff is still damn good)

IMO those are all "can't go wrong with" auther picks

 

[Blue Musician]

So escapists I'm a very big reader and I do like my share of writers and books but some of my favorite are.
Toylstoy,J.R.R Tolkien,Hemingway,Jane Austen,Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare,H.P.Lovecraft,Terry Pratchett and Dickens.

So people what are some of your favorite writers and could anyone recommend me some titles? >.<

Tolkien, Jonathan Stroud and Patrick Ness are some of my favorites. Specially Jonathan Stroud.