Who likes to read what?

[Azrael]

As some of you may have noticed, I don't like TV. That said, here's my reading list as of late:
Henry Miller- The Air-conditioned Nightmare
Alan Watts- Nature, Man and Woman
Christopher Penczak- Sons of the Goddess: A young man's guide to Wicca
Roger Fischer/ Ken Chernoff- Air Conditioning and Refrigeration repair Second Edition
Arthur Rimbaud- Illuminations
Chuck Palahniuk- Stranger than fiction

I tend to read a lot of things at once and assimilate as I go. That being said, I'm focusing on the Miller and the Penczak right now. I try not to spread myself out too thin. What are you people filling your heads with right now?

[saralee]

I don't have a TV either.

Currently on the go:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802140157/002-3412462-8453624?v=glance&n=283155">Kushner and Solomon (ed.), <i>Wrestling with Zion: Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict</i></a>, pretty much what it sounds like. The readings are chosen to represent a spectrum of views and responses, over the past 100+ years.

Ursula le Guin, <i>The Gift</i>, I just started this, so I can't really tell you much about it, other than that the first chapter shows le Guin's characteristic skill and craft, and ability to write from a lovely first-person.

Charles Darwin, <i>The Origin of Species</i>, because I'd only read snippets before.

Stephen Grenblatt, <i>Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare</i>, a lively bio. of Shakespeare, replete with "may haves" and "might haves," that contains a lot of information about the social and cultural forces and mores of Shakespeare's time.

Isabel Allende, <i>Zorro</i>, because I'm a sucker for Allende's prose and storytelling.

[wildangel]

Ken Follet. I buy the hard covers, read them in a couple of days, then re-read them again in a few months. Repeat. I read The Third Twin when I was 14 and was immediately addicted. It's not typical high school freshman reading, but I was a sci-fi geek in disguise I guess. Currently I'm re-reading Whiteout.

[codybear3]

I read alot but I have no real "favorite" authors except Louis L'amour, Ann Rice, Brian Brumley, the author of the Necroscope series (vampires with a twist)...I go with any and all that get my attention from mideval, Fuedal Japan, space, westerns, fantasy and ,of course, erotic... :paw: :paw:

[DiamondDog]

I'm reading Bios on Dr. Kinsey and Jack Kerouac, Kerouac's Visions of Cody, and various short stories.

[EludedSunshine]

My favorite book since I was nine: Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Right now, I'm buried in The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui, Mao's personal physician for the last 20-someodd years of his life. I'm a Chinese history nerd, but this book is absolutely fascinating. It makes me giddy.

After this, I'm going to move on to The Complete Works of Lu Xun, who is probably China's most lauded author.

How I Paid for College by Marc Acito is excellent and quite amusing. Also, it deals heavily with bisexuality in (I think) a positive light to which a lot of us could relate.

[Herbwoman39]

Since I'm waist-deep in my Masters program right now, the only thing I'm reading is my textbooks. Chemical Constituents in Herbal Medicine and my Herb 302 Herbal Materia Medica. We're just finishing up the section on Astringent herbs.

[Reprob8]

Someone from this site got me to read poetry, I even wrote a couple. Other than that I am reading the davinci code, I like some scifi, Robert Jordan, George r.r. Martin, Eric flint's joes world series is about the funniest thing I have ever read "the hand wringing faction of the liberal party" is one of my favorite lines and it fits our political spectrum today.

Bush on the couch is scary but a good read. Bush's brain just pisses you off (but in fairness I never got that one read, it pissed me off).

[citystyleguy]

i like anything to do with history, politics, military history and/or battles, gardening, botany, and cooking;

at present, these include the following;

john jay, founding father; walter stahr
adams vs. jefferson; john ferling
american sphinx, the character of thomas jefferson; joseph j ellis

second nature, a gardners education; michael pollan
the botany of desire, a plant's eye-view of the world; michael pollan

french women don't get fat: the secret of eating for pleasure; mireille guiliano
the omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals; michael pollan

collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed; jared diamond

and then there is my all time favorite, reading the oxford dictionary!

by the way, tv is a great medium, if you choose wisely!

may the sun shine on the path ahead of you!

[canuckotter]

Terry Pratchett is always a good way to make me happy. :) Honestly, IMO, he's the best novelist living today. He writes humourous fantasy (mostly), but it's really satire in thin disguise. Some of it is just fun, but some of it is enough to feel like you've been punched in the gut. For example, any computer geek reading Going Postal will instantly and completely understand a number of the characters, and in fact a large portion of the plot, once they reach about page 100 or so. Small Gods actually helped me form my current worldview, although admittedly it was only one influence among many. Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman) is enough to make me pee my pants, while also making me consider the nature of the eternal battle between good and evil that takes place within our souls. Some of the funniest, lightest, easiest-reading storytelling out there, yet somehow with subject matter more dense than you'll find in even the most pretentious "literature".

Of course, others disagree with my assessment of Pratchett. ;)

As for other stuff... Well, beyond RPG rulebooks... :) I'm currently reading some Accounting texts for a course I'm taking. I also enjoy reading computer books. And I'm now trying to hunt down and read through as many classics as I can find... I finished Frankenstein a couple weeks ago but have been too busy to find something else. I think next up is Romeo & Juliet.

[Diane54]

I am into history, especially British History and am reading right now Oliver Cromwell, Mill on the floss, chakra healing, meditations by putangali.
that is pretty much it .

[Rose Lousie Bennett]

I find myself reading all the time. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do free reading of what ever I want when I start college this fall, but my two all time favorite books are Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browining and Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I love reading all diffirent styles from classics to non fiction, but I always find myself picking up these two again.

[Long Duck Dong]

mmm lets see

wilbur smith- all his books
eric van lustbader - books about japanese martial arts etc
most of the books dealing with spirituality, wicca, and new age ( i poke holes in most of them as just money spinners for the gullible )
jean auel - earths children series
dean knootz

[ScifiBiJen]

I love sci-fi (could you tell?) mainly, but I've had a couple other books in the mix too lately.
Just finished The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Really good look at where our food comes from.
Currently reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism and starting to get pretty into it. I've always been a nature person and I like the idea of a non-dogmatic spirituality.

Next in line is the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

My favorite books of all time are Tolkien's The Silmarillion and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 series.

:flag1:

[smokey]

I am a big non-fiction reader, history, art, philosophy, religion, politics, environment etc.

[anne27]

I am a sci-fi fan and love any good fantasy book. Anne Rice is my favorite author (that's where my nick is from). Give me any book with a vampire.
My sis introduced me to the Outlander series by Diane Gabaldon. It's sort of a romance/historical series with time travel thrown in for good measure. It's not something I would have picked up on my own, but I am hooked!

[Roan's Man]

Some great works listed here. My literary big four is Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and Eudora Welty.

[blue_hard]

The Well at the World's End - William Morris
The Great Highway - August Strindberg
Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton

Anything by Erle Stanley Gardner

[Diane54]

Smokey a man after my own heart
the only fiction I read is StarTrek

[TashaSW]

Right now Im reading VC Andrews's novels, Im currently on the Casteel series.

I LOVE any books dealing with true accounts of ghosts and hauntings :-)

Tasha

[bigregory]

Penthouse Variations and any cookbook i can get my hands on are both daily reading for me.
Steven King
Terry Goodkind
Clive Barker
I guess its any book that takes me away from reality.
Yes even a cookbook can do that,drooling over a yummy recipe
can take me away almost as good as a good fantasy story. :tong:

[Azrael]

I just started reading Red Dragon again by Thomas Harris. Intense does not begin to describe it.

[12voltman59]

I am very much a fan of Pat Conroy's stuff both fiction and non-fiction, Ann Rice is also a favorite as is James Lee Burke with his "Dave Robicheaux" detective series of books.

Someone mentioned Hemingway--most certainly a fave, what wonderful, richly textured and rendered descriptive writing--spare, simple and direct, but so incredible.

A favorite book of recent years was John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" about events that took place in one of my old hometowns, Savannah, Georgia--the movie based on the book that was directed by Clint Eastwood sucked though--with the exception of the portrayal of Jim Williams by Kevin Spacey was absolutely spot on---too bad old Clint did not do justice to Berendt's story and to Savannah....

An inspirational book to me is Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth" In that case the movie was as good as the book itself---

Steinbeck was another favorite author--I really need to go back and re-read his stuff.

Another book I loved was "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole--too bad he died without giving us more great works...

There are of course more favorite authors and individual books, but what I have included thus far will suffice....

There is one thread that underlies my choices to a great extent--with the exception of Steinbeck and Buck--most of the authors I have listed are Southern and the works included--have been set in the south...

[wildangel]

Well, I finished Whiteout and upon sheer boredom and curiosity, I picked up one of my husband's books. I am a decidedly un-fan of Dan Brown. I admit that he is a good writer, but all of his books are so popular and I find it hard to get into a book when everyone has an opinion about it. Alas, I picked up Deception Point and I'm hooked. It's a great book. I may become a Dan Brown fan after all.

[Sparks]

All of the obove are wonderful books. I add Kahilil Gibran, "The Prophet"

[EludedSunshine]

An inspirational book to me is Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth" In that case the movie was as good as the book itself---
Ahh, The Good Earth. Read that one last year for my East Asian Studies major (in fact, it's sitting less than a foot from me right now, ha). Very good, but depressing, too. Didn't know there was a movie. Now I really want to check it out...

Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in my original list. Very, very sad, but uplifting at the same time. It made me cry, and almost nothing does that--books least of all. I'm told it was *the* read for old ladies in book clubs last year, but whatever. :tong:

[Merlla]

I like to read pretty much anything. Actually, I'm an English Literature major. :-P At the moment I'm reading Crime and Punishment. I just read an awesome book called The Well of Loneliness. That book is especially relevent to this group as it's main character is "queer." It was published in the '20s and immediently banned. Banned Books= Good Reads.

[blue_hard]

I like to read pretty much anything. Actually, I'm an English Literature major. :-P At the moment I'm reading Crime and Punishment. I just read an awesome book called The Well of Loneliness. That book is especially relevent to this group as it's main character is "queer." It was published in the '20s and immediently banned. Banned Books= Good Reads.

Wait until you read "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY"

[Merlla]

That's one of the greatest books of all time!

[Haemoglobin]

Personally i like to read books by Anne Rice, i also liked the two i read from her son Christopher Rice (in his books , in both of them , he writes also about beeing gay and bisexuality .. his characters are just so good , you can really feel the tension , the erotic , its great )
As well as i like Nietzsche when i wanna feed my brain with smth more intelligent .. but his best definitly was "Der wille zur macht" .
Cussler , Dan Brown , Donna Leon (dont laugh but some , me included , like that stuff ) Lovecraft .. and many many more .. i think they write just awesome books ... :bibounce:

[becksbolero]

I buy alot of second hand books(maybe save a few trees and a few bucks).I'm a Steinbeck fan and WWII history but i was a huge Steven King fan until his books just became redundant.I'll buy anything that's considered"literature" but some are very hard to read,boring if well written.

[12voltman59]

I have a mea culpa--while I loved "The Good Earth" I had a brain fart and meant instead "The Grapes of Wrath"

Sorry for the hose up....LOL

[smurf111978]

JRR Tolkien is by far my favorite auther his work captivates me like no other auther has. Lord of the Rings was after all the 2nd most read book of the 20th centuary after the bible. The Elven characters and their way of life is what captivates me the most. If only I could stay a while in Rivendell to restore my health before leaving for Lothlorien to camp beneath the great Mallorn trees. :rolleyes:

I also like the Wraeththu series by Storm Constantine (the guys portraying the charcaters for the associated roleplaying game look rather sexy too:tong: )

I also like reading war stories, preferably true ones as they are often more exciting than fiction. I have just finished reading XH607 about the Vulcan bomber raids during the Falklands war in 1982. I found it a fantastic read and could hardly put it down and believe its at the very top end of the book charts here in the UK.

I also read various magazines about technology, computers, photography, model making/painting and aviation/military history.

I dont tend to read as much now, I always used to read in bed but now I spend most of my reading time in chat here instead!!!

[wildangel]

Finished up Dan Brown's Deception Point and started re-reading The FairTax Book by Congressman John Linder and Neal Boortz. I've read it probably a dozen times, but I always find it interesting. We're a socio-political bunch. I'm sure more of you [Americans] have read the book. Even if it was on the NY Times Bestseller's List, I doubt non-Americans give a rat's ass about it too much.

[Mystical Light]

Currently I am re-reading Adam, Eve and the Serpent by Elaine Pagels becasue it is one of three books in one volume and I am working toward the third book The Origin of Satan which I have not read.

Also reading Guide to Getting It On - Fourth Edition by Paul Joannides

Then there is Don't Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis. Love his Don't Know Much series.

Home With God by Neale Donald Walsch

Just finished A Short History of Mythology by Karen Armstrong

And finally Walking With Grandfather by Joseph M. Marshall III

[shadowsaffinity]

i'm currently reading Stone Butch Blues, The Full Spectrum and Fear of a Queer Planet.

i also just bought Bi Any Other Name, but i haven't started it yet.

i love dan brown's books. i still need to read Digital Fortress, but i've read all of his other ones

[ny000]

I am reading Pynchon's "V." now. Brilliantly funny and observant.

[swag85]

right now, im reading
The Final Prophecies Of Nostradamus, by: Erika Cheetham
Wildcard, By: Rachel Lee

i like some, King novels.
i read alot its kind of hard to remember :tong:

[kinsey_3]

As some of you may have noticed, I don't like TV

Poor you. Then again, you are in Florida.

Try The BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
The biggest broadcaster in the world, for TV, Radio and Internet, and a supporter of countless cultural projects. A public service corporation, with no commercial breaks (in mainland Britain), no sponsorship, no shareholders, and no discernible bias, it is probably the finest broadcaster in the world, too. A hothouse of up-and-coming authors, scriptwriters, playwrights, poets and actors, with the stated aim "to enrich people’s lives with great programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain. Its vision is to be the most creative, trusted organisation in the world."

Take your brain with you to the TV.

[Aleksandra]

Well, since i'm an editor for publishing books and having doctorate from world litterature, i could never satisfy with easy litterature, or any kind of modern litterature who basicly erased whole art from itself and represent it all in some stupid, non-inteliegent sence.
So i really like to stick to real books, real writers, to those which life was totaly dedicated to writing and nothing else.

I would definitly put Johan Wolfgang von Göethe on first place, because i simply admire him, and that writer trought all this centuries never been understood on right way.
His bible "Faust" is something amazing, something that contents a real, pure and essential quality in itself, and i think that this book is top of ever kind of art in human history.
I never thought that is possible to discus about this book because it's simple perfection and there is no room about any kind of talking, discusing or anything else.
Also, his famous novel "Wilhelm Meister" is something wonderful, and i may put that book on the second best book ever wroten.
It's really shame that people simply wanna forgot von Göethe, but everywhere, in every litterature i found his huge influence.
I really recomed to all ppl to read all his books.

Well, also there is other quality writers which i adore and recomend to all to read : Pär Fabian Lagerkvist, Johan August Strindberg, Selma Lagerlöf, Mika Wältari, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich von Schiller, Novalis, Trygve Gulbranssen, Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Nikolaj Gogolj, Fjodor Mihajlovic Dostojevski, Caslav Milos, etc...

Simply, classic litterature is my taste.