I feel miffed that everyone is listing more than 5. I could do that too 
. I thought we were boardgamers - have suddenly rules not become rules!?!
Also, our ability to populate these lists may be a function of our, ahem, age 
. I have just finished the latest (and currently last) Stross Laundry books (signed as usual via my local SF bookshop, Transreal Books). There he notes that it is the end of a 25 year journey. I have the first one in Golden Gryphon hardback.
Fair points!
It is certainly much easier if you read a lot and are old.
Here are five authors I could have listed if asked at the age of ten or so:
C.S. Lewis
Hergé
Richmal Crompton
Michael Hardcastle
The Rev W. Awdry
I remember when he was shopping it around trying to find a publisher that wouldn’t go bust before bringing it out (as happened I think twice). 
Angela Carter; William Faulkner; J.M. Coetzee; Jane Austen; John Steinbeck
I decided to limit my choices to novels that weren’t part of a series. Arbitrary? Yes! But it left me with exactly five authors. Happy to see whistle_pig mention Margaret Atwood (I’ve read four and want to read more). And thanks Lordof1, you’ve got me looking into Alan Moore’s prose (I found your Jerusalem review in this thread).
If you’re a reader (and I mean its something you do regularly, its a hobby etc), it shouldn’t be too difficult to list 10, 15 or 20+ authors this way. Even as a teenager, I could probably reel 10-15 authors off pretty easily.
The surprise is always when you come up against people who would struggle to name 5 authors they’ve read anything of that you suddenly realise you’re in a bit of a bubble
If you excluded series from the list I think it gets a bit harder.
It depends also on genre I guess. I mean I can name 5 fantasy or sci-fi authors where I’ve read 5 books excluding series quite easily - if counting one book from each series works - becuase a lot of them are very prolific. I mean even Terry Pratchett, you could have one Discworld, one Bromeliad, one Johnny Maxwell, one Long Earth and Good Omens (or replace Long Earth and Good Omens with Nation/Dodger/Strata/Carpet People/The Dark Side of the Sun if you don’t allow joint authors).
The more you get into literary fiction, it probably gets harder because generally there are fewer books per author!
It’s not enough when the fashionable thing is to write trilogies. If the trend is pentologies, the list will be different - even then, some dont finish their works. I am fond of the Leviathan series and Locke Lamora but those are only 3 titles each. Even worse with history books for me. I dont read according to author. JJN is the only one Ive liked enough.
Historians Ive read 5 or more books of:
Dan Jones
Antonia Fraser
Mary Beard
Stephen E Ambrose
Tom Holland
To be fair, I struggle with almost anything where I’m asked to list X in a category. I can’t do Favourite Film, Book, Song etc. My mind just goes blank. Similarly if you asked me to name actors or something, or books I’ve read.
This sort of thing is why I got into LibraryThing. At least then I can go back to my records when people ask me for recommendations.
It’s also a handy side effect of blog-reviewing everything I read.
I could try influence on me, in rough chronological order, but that will leave out… so many, and privilege only the early discoveries.
Have you gotten to visit Cross Plains and the Howard house?
No, Texas is a part of the US I’ve never been to and am unlikely to visit at the present time.
It’s not convenient
I had a client site about 70 miles away for a few years and I made it over twice when I could find time. The house is surprisingly well preserved and curated
I’ll see if I can track down the fotos from when I was there. One of the smaller things that gave me a smile was a Polaroid they have of Bruce Boxleitner when he visited
