I'm a bit of a beatnic at heart, and will go with Jack Kerouac.
Who is yours?
This is as difficult as identifying a favourite book.
Almost impossible to say but if pushed I would say Jane Austen. She lived from 1775 to 1817 and her books are almost akin to videos of her contemporary life. She wrote only of things she knew and people she had met but the fascination for me is the snapshot they give of the real life of her times.
She had an acid wit and many of her characters can still be seen today. Wonderfully compelling for me.
Michael Crichton. Hard to pick a favourite book though. Perhaps Timeline.
Favorite? Wow. So many to choose from, so little time to decide...heh heh.
I have always liked the late Louis La Amour, though Shakespeare has also been a favorite of mine too. In a lot of ways, they are very much alike. Romance, excitement, drama, and a host of other things grown together to make interesting reading.
Fyodor Dostoevsky. How someone can emerge from a prison camp in Siberia to create such psychologically insightful and humorous classics is beyond me.