Umberto Eco - pretty much anything the man has written is interesting

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JRR Tolkien - the gateway drug to fantasy fiction, still re-read

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Morris West - still appeals to my Catholic upbringing (yes I read Greeley and liked his take, and that's Fr. Andrew and not Horace)

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J.D. Salinger - kind of out of fashion now, but one of the first pieces of the canon that I really liked

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Thomas Merton - still can't get over 'Original Child Bomb'

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Arthur Conan Doyle - such good detective work

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James Morrow - a really interesting take on Christian ideas

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Liu Cixin - a really challenging Science Fiction author, who reminded me of Umberto Eco [grew up on Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov and lots of short story collections]

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Jean Paul Sartre / Albert Camus - although not exactly similar both got me to think deeply about existentialism in different ways and Philosophy in general

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Comedy - while I've avoided categories, these 3 authors all made me laugh out loud while reading them

 - Bill Bryson - love everything I've read by him, but 'Notes from a Small Island' is still my favorite

 - Tony Hawks [not the skateboarder he's Tony Hawk] -his book 'Round Ireland with a Fridge' was absolutely hilarious, other books were good, but nothing I've read matched that

 - Michael Perry - while his politics have moved further right than I think I'm comfortable with, his book 'Population: 485' was a lovely picture of small town/suburb life and laugh out loud funny at times as well as poignant (and reminded me of friends I grew up with 3 of whom were volunteer fireman, and 1 who ended up with it as a profession). 

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  - more to come -