Boring answer: Charles Dickens, especially Great Expectations

But I'm mostly a lover of sci fi and horror, quick list of some favourites

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
Philip K Dick - Time Out Of Joint
Max Barry - Jennifer Government
Sergei Lukyanenko; translated by Andrew Bromfield - Day Watch (that's book 2 of 4 in the Night Watch series)
Douglas Adams - The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (2 of 2.5 from the Dirk Gently series)
Jostein Gaarder - Sophie's World
Will Self - The Book of Dave

And for younger orientated books
Eoin Colfer - Wish List
The Darren Shan series (aka the Cirque du Freak series)

I'm not really an avid reader these days, have trouble concentrating often, but I'll still pop into a second hand store and get something with an interesting blurb now and then.