I’m gonna go with Tom Clancy as well. Some of Michael Crichton’s works I enjoy too. That’s as far as novels go. On the humourous side, I’ll read anything by David Sedaris or Connie Willis. Absolutely fuckin’ hilarious.
Stephen King
P.J. O’Roarke
Ben Stein
Ray Bradbury
Ghost Story - Peter Straub
Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons
I’ll promote Eve’s book for her! (That link didn’t work for me, Eve) Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld’s Broadway by Eve
(Hey Eve I notice you’re published by the University Press of Kentucky. Small world! a recent book review by me
My favorite author? I can’t name just one! John Irving has been a perennial favorite and I think I’ve read all of Gail Godwin’s novels. But then again, I’ve also read all Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, so that’s not really a qualifier. Irving always makes me laugh and gave me an incurable weakness for the semicolon.
I’ve always enjoyed Anne Rice, too, even before she became the mega popular Goth priestess, or whatever she is. Memnoch the Devil is a fascinating exploration of the meaning of religion and just who God is. And of course, her books are always seething with barely repressed sexuality. In the vampire books, she lets a bit of it out with The Tale of the Body Thief.
Wow, Eve. I am definitely going to buy your book when I get some $$, sounds delicious.
Okay, my fave authors are:
Dean Koontx
Betty Smith
Barbara Kingsolver
Steven King
Tolstoy
Dickens
Kurt Vonnegut
Happy reading, folks!
Wow, Ellen—how’s about you review MY book? I can get my publisher to send you a FREE COPY!
Remember, gang, I’ll sign and send back any you send to my work address . . . Try and get Dave Barry or Frank McCourt t’ do THAT!
kurt vonnegut.
I’ll throw in another Roger Zelazny vote.
Hmm…
Annie Dillard
Carl Sagan
James Lileks
Dorothy L. Sayers
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Michael Crichton
Preston/Child
Elizabeth Peters
Tolkein
Lloyd Alexander
Herge
Stephen Jay Gould
Er, was I only supposed to pick one?
Jane Austen.
and Cecil Adams.
Yeah, I’m still grumpy that Frank McCourt hasn’t come to town. He promised he’d be here in October … then cancelled.
I’d love a copy of your book to review! I’d have to clear it with the paper since I just do it freelance. And how do you think I stock my library?? 
My favorite author is a close tie between Stephen King or Dean Koontz. My favorite King book is “Eye of the Dragon”: favorite movie, “The Langoliers”. My favorite Dean Koontz book is “Dragon Tears” or “The Eyes of Darkness”.
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David Foster Wallace
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Henry Miller
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Franklin W. Dixon
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Rick Bass
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Tim O’Brian
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Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Charles Bukowski
My favorite author changes every week. It just depends on what book I am currently reading.
However, my current favorites are (in no particular order)
Larry McMurtry
Charles Dickens
Stephen King
Harriet Beecher Stowe
And, of course Lilian Jackson Braun.
Silver Fire - My favorite King book is “Eye of the Dragon” too. I have talked to so many so called King fans who have never even heard of that book!
Kurt Vonnegut
Douglass Coupland
TC Boyle
Scott Fitzgerald
Dorothy Allison
Tobias Wolfe
Ooh Ooh! Totally forgot Tim O’Brien!
It depends on what I’m currently reading, what I’ve just finished reading, what sort of mood I’m in, etc.
Right now, I’m reading Hunter’s Death by Michelle West and Kim by Rudyard Kipling, so they’re both on the list.
Who else…Steven Brust. Robin McKinley. Dickens. Perhaps Barbara Kingsolver.
Joe Lansdale, King, George R. R. Martin, Eudora Welty, Larry McMurtry, early Toni Morrison, Willa Cather, Alice Hoffman, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Thomas Disch – oh screw it! Too many.
And Harriett Simpson Arnow! I know some of you appreciate stories with an Appalachian setting.
Forgot about her for years, then unpacked some books over the weekend and there she was. “The Dollmaker” is back in print. I don’t know about “Hunter’s Horn” and “The Weedkiller’s Daughter”, but find them if you can.
I’ll second Dan Simmons. My favorite of his is “The Hollow Man”. (No relation to the upcoming movie, as far as I know)
But my favorite author is currently Greg Egan. He writes science fiction of the sort that really makes you think. The question reality sort of book. And to top it off, he’s an awesome programmer. Check out his home page which has some short stories and some sample java applets.
http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/
John Ralston Saul and Dorothy Parker