Ah, books! Such lovely things, and so darn distracting when you need to be working on something else. They're very similar to Layonara in that regard.
I see some of my favourites have already been given attention in this thread, so I'll throw out a couple authors and books I've enjoyed that
haven't been mentioned yet.
Guy Gavriel Kay -- A Canadian fantasy writer with two Aurora awards under his belt, and many years of good writing still to come. He's the author of the "Fionavar Tapestry" series, "Tigana", "The Lions of Al-Rassan", "Ysabel", and half a dozen other books.
Susan Cooper -- A childhood favourite, and a very celebrated English children's author. I think she has at least one or maybe two Newbery awards for her series "The Dark is Rising". Personally, I always liked "The Boggart" too, but it was "Seaward" that captured my heart.
O. R. Melling -- Another childhood favourite, and another Canadian. She wrote "The Hunter's Moon" and "The Singing Stone" among other things, and tends to have a focus on Celtic and Irish folklore in her fantasy.
Lois Lowry -- "The Giver". (While I'm on childhood favourites). If you've read this one, you probably know why I'm mentioning it. I think this may have been one of the books that set me up to love fantasy and science-fiction so much.
Some other more adult favourites:
- "High Fidelity" -- Nicholas Hornby
- "The Poisonwood Bible" --Barbara Kingsolver
- "The Lovely Bones" -- Alice Sebold (Also, an interesting biography by the same author -- "Lucky")
- "The Loop" -- Nicholas Evans ("The Horse Whisperer" was also good, but I liked "The Loop" better)
- Several of Farley Mowat's books -- make me laugh till I cry every time
- Anything by Christopher Moore, when I'm in the mood for something wacky/absurd/funny/awful/dark/unique. This guy is crazy, but crazy in an interesting and often very very funny way. The last book of his I read? "A Dirty Job" (all about Death with a capital D). One before that? "Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story" (wacky vampire romances)
- Lots of the classical English literature types. Comes with the English minor, I guess, but I genuinely like Shakespeare, the Romantic poets, Dickens, Joyce and the like. "Wuthering Heights" is a definite favourite.
- Plays. I took a course on Canadian drama two years ago from a great prof, and it really opened up my eyes to a genre I'd been ignoring. I know they're "meant to be seen" but they make pretty good reading too. And no, I don't just love Canadian plays. I just know them best. Have to say I love Tom Stoppard too.
- "The Time Traveller's Wife" -- Audrey Niffenager. This is an amazing work -- probably my current favourite book. I simply cannot praise this highly enough. It had absolutely everything I was looking for, and was absolutely uncompromising in the path its story took.
I could go on, but I won't, because I could literally post all night!
p.s. For those that are wondering ... No. There really is no rhyme or reason to my taste in books. I'll read anything, from cereal boxes to instruction manuals. Call my taste random, crazy, eclectic, or non-existant, but I'm just that kind of person.