Orson Scott Card is my absolute favorite author, and the books I enjoyed most be him were Enchantment and the Ender Series (specifically, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead). But really, I rip through almost anything he writes with enthusiasm and excitement.
On a more old school level, Catch-22 is one of the best books I've ever read. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life at a fiction novel as I did when I read this book. A lot of the time I'll make my online handles literary references from this book. I read it years ago, but to this day I'll think of something funny I remember from it and laugh out loud.
Stephen King's Dark Tower series is another bunch of books that I absolutely loved. It was totally unique, and had the best beginning and ending out of any story I've read personally. Stephen King considers it to be his Magnum Opus, the Lord of the Rings to his Tolkien. In fact, if I remember right, the LotR books are what inspired him to create an epic like this initially.
I also really enjoyed Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Follet usually does spy thriller and action type books, but this book was the exception as it dealed with the building of a cathedral in early medieval Britain, and spans decades.
