Probably most people's top 7 will be mostly well-known authors, don't feel bad.

My not-in-any-order list:

AC (of course, or why would i be here?)

Dashiell Hammet (noir pulp detective fiction)

Raymond Chandler (noir pulp detective fiction)

Len Deighton (espionage, crime, war fiction)

Reginald Hill (contemporary UK crime)

H.P. Lovecraft (again)

Leslie Charteris (pulp-era UK crime)

Thanks for sharing! I have the thin man but haven't read it yet. Didnt one of those two noire guys also do the Maltese Falcon? I love the film.

Bring em on people! 🙂

Yes, The Maltese Falcon is Hammet; the movie dialogue is pretty much word for word from the book.

Maybe everyone else is too bust reading to post a list? Off to read Chester Himes (50s-60s Harlem crime fiction) before bed myself.

Hmmm.... A 'top 7' is a tough order, Chris, but I'll give it a go. I'm going to exclude AC because all of us will obviously(?) have him on here. So, here are my 7 aside from the Master himself:
Laurence Sterne - the author of Tristram Shandy, which is probably my favourite book thus far. I've read it countless times & it's never far from me.

Charles Baudelaire - He represents an epoch, & a vast array of artists, musicians & writers under his banner. Like Laurence his output was distilled into one pure burst of energy.
William Blake - Although I'm perhaps more influenced by his artwork, it's almost impossible to separate this from his written word. They are bound together, & for that I find him to be extraordinary for his time.

Friedrich Nietzsche - He is the one philosopher who had the ability to draw in a wider audience through his talent for the grand dramatic sweep. Made everyone else look boring in comparison.

Jack Kerouac - Defines the hopes & dreams of the USA for me. I think of his work as being musical. He was the vocalist for many a band (in spirit).

Terry Pratchett - He made 50 books a walk through the park. There is no other who has made me laugh more. His ability for sustained jokes is unsurpassed, & in these he gives wisdom.

Alan Moore - He would probably be AC's favourite!

I like this new "what you would read for the rest of your life besides AC" rule, especially since 7 is so few.

Bumping AC from list allows room for Charles Stross, contemporary mind-bending SF author. His Laundry series mentions AC, Fuller etc, and is about agents for a UK anti-Elder Gods/Cult of Cthulhu espionage agency, who battle bureaucracy and Nameless Horrors Outside Time.

1) G. W. F. Hegel - for the depth and methodology of his thought.

2) J. W. Goethe - a true polymath: novels, dramas, poems, paleontology, etc.

3) J. R. R. Tolkien - for his Middle-Earth fantasy.

4) Hermes Trismegistos - Corpus Hermeticum, as food for thought and life.

5) Gustav Meyrink - deeply layered, occult novels.

6) E. R. Eddison - for his richly textured Zimiamvia Trilogy

7) Aleister Crowley ... but as that's a given anyway, I'll take Milton's Paradise Lost for the sheer brilliance of the first two books, and the fact that "he was of the Devil's party" !

Markus

Thank you guys for responding : )

Anyone else?

Markus could you talk more about Gustav? I have never heard of him and I am a HUGE fan of occult novels : Gregorius, Grant, Fortune, 🙂