Memetime...

Fr Z has tagged me for a meme. Like him, I'm going to add the disclaimer that what I'm putting down is what immediately occurs to me and I'm deliberately steering away from some of the more obvious answers. (I think this is justified, as the meme asks for 'Three books/authors everyone should read' NOT 'The top Three books/authors everyone should read.') Given time and reflection, I'd probably answer very differently:

Three fiction books everyone should read:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange
Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman

Three non-fiction books everyone should read:
Darrell Huff: How to Lie with Statistics
St Augustine: Confessions
Frederick Coppleston: History of Philosophy, Volume 1

Three authors everyone should read:
E M Forster
Jane Austen
J L Borges

I don't normally like passing memes on, but I think I'd like to hear how the Whapsters and the Laodiceans would answer this.