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This is truly not an easy question for me to answer.
I read voraciously. I tend to have a stable of favorite authors that I return to time and time again, like Harlan Ellison and Andrew Vachss, but as I think back a lot of the favorite books actually go back to my childhood ...
The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
The Dark is Rising Sequence - Suzanne Cooper
Children of Green Knowe - L.M. Boston (and the sequels)
Other favorites include
1984 - George Orwell
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter (gotta read that one again soon)
Known Space Series - Larry Niven (up to Ringworld Engineers)
Quiller Series - Adam Hall
The original James Bond books by Ian Fleming. Those abominations that were written by other authors leave me cold.
I also have to confess a fondness for certain "Hairy Chested Men's Adventure Series" particularly Jerry Ahern's "Survivalist" and Axel Kilgore's "They Call Me the Mercenary". After I had been reading both sets for some time I discovered (via character crossover initially) that both series are written by the same author. I also enjoyed "Saigon Commandos" by Jonathan Cain, but still haven't managed to see the B-Movie based on the first book (which I believe stars Willem Dafoe).
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