What does everyone like to read?

I'm a book nut, and always love to hear what people are reading in the hopes it will turn me on to something new. I'd be especially interested in any fiction anyone has run across that conjures the exotica mood. I'd have no idea where to start with that, but would love to go where it took me.

Skaal,
kittenhead

Non-fiction:currently reading "The Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene, far freakier than anything in fiction.

Fiction: have read and abandoned a lot, but the best thing I last read was "Condominium" by John D. MacDonald, fairly old (70s) novel about Florida and hurricanes, but great, just great, can't recommend it highly enough.

Politics, Politics, Politics...I'm obsessed (I won't name authors as to not hurt anyone's feelings)
Also, "alien creationism" books:Zechariah Sitchin, Erich Von Daniken and such.

A must for all "CSI" fans! :lol:

Seriously though, I read a LOT of California history.

Penthouse forum....he, he, he....

Computer Hardware/Language/OS manuals, lots of SF, Kinky Friedman mysteries, travel books, How-To manuals, comic book collections.

Right now I'm reading the book "Christmas Story," which is in fact a scaled down version of Jean Shepherd's classic, "In God We Trust All Others Pay Cash." They've basically taken all the short stories from the old book and rearranged them to mimic the flow of the movie. I've probably read "In God We Trust.." 20 times so the "Christmas Story" book is quite familiar but oddly refreshing...great light reading!

Most of the other books I read pertain to popular culture throughout the 20th Century. Over the last 10 years I've accumulated a pretty nice sized library of books pertaining to motels, diners, gas stations, Airstreams, tikis, etc. These books may not read like "War and Peace" and they do contain a lot of pretty pictures, illustrations and artwork but they are fun and I get a small thrill every time I flip through them!

Been on a hard-core non-fiction kick the last few years - mainly technical history, mid-century design, music biographies/histories, paleontology.

Fiction-wise, i will buy/read anything by Elmore Leonard, William Gibson, and Tom Wolfe (odd combination of the three).

After seeing 'The Incredibles,' i've been reading Marvel Comics from the Silver Age - Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Avengers - and Ian Fleming's James Bonds.

i'm a newspaper/magazine junkie - i read at least two daily papers, Wired, Blender, the New Musical Express, American History of Invention and Technology, Juxtapoz, Barracuda, Dwell, Metropolis, Metroplolitan Home, Atomic Ranch, National Geographic, and whatever i pick up.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that in 2003 the average American watched TV for 2.5 hours a day and read for 22 minutes.

Great topic, I'm always looking for something new myself. As long as its bizarre. I'm a big fan of the short story so here are a few of my favorite authors of this format.

T.C. Boyle - "After the plauge" Terrific collection, grusome, bizzare,scary, and very funny.
Stacey Richter - "My Date With Satan" A collection of very funny, strange and odd stories. Dark Humor
Raymond Carver - "Cathedral" What a style. The perfect collection. One of the greatest short story writers of all time.
Flannery O'Connor "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" Wonderfully talented woman. Her stroies of the south are similar to those Faulkner - Fantastic. When modern day authors get boring give O'connor a try.

Poetry Front - Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, Emily Dickonson, and Slvia Plath

Oh yes, and the very strange works of Chuck Palahniuk (Yeah the guy who wrote Fight Club) but he has also written so much more. Check out "Monster", charmingly insane.

I'm currently reading "Drink As Much As You Want And Live Longer" by Frederick M. Beyerlein (a primer for the holiday season) and Sexplorations by Anka Radakovich (purely entertainment).

George Alec Effinger "When Gravity Fails"; about the tenth time I'm reading it. Great book.

James Branch Cabell. I'm slowly working my way through the History of Manuel. I have all of the books in one or another version. He's a fascinating and extremely underrated American author. I actually cancelled my subscription to Library of America after having an argument with members of the editorial board when they rejected his works as worthy of consideration for the collection.

Other "serious" authors I enjoy are Douglas Adams, Paul Bowles, V.S. Naipaul, Tama Janowitz, and Thomas Pynchon.

I also have a lifelong fascinationwith the American Pulp Fiction era, and enjoy reading old Weird Tales, Doc Savage, The Shadow, etc. Most of those are formula fiction, but some of it is well written; notable among the authors of the era are H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Lester Dent, and Robert Bloch.

Cheers!

Re: Thomas Pynchon...I was about 100 pages into Gravity's Rainbow when I realized I had no clue what the hell was going on...but I still keep it on the bookshelf to appear smart.

David Sedaris is one of my faves right now. Also digging the Harry Potter books.

Cybertiki: Douglas Adams is a Serious Author?

Yeah ... Gravity's Rainbow is a tough read, but worth the effort once you start to figure out what's going on. If you want to read Pynchon, start with "V", or "The Crying of Lot 49". Much easier to wade thru.

As for Douglas Adams, yes, he was a serious author - and a better writer than most. If you haven't read it yet, see if you can get a copy of "Last Chance to See" for a look at him that goes beyond H2G2. I was fortunate enough to work with him briefly in the mid-80's on a game, and had spoken with him on several occasions afterwards. He was a wonderful man, and his writings bear comparison with O. Henry, James Thurber, and Mark Twain. He is greatly missed these days.

Cheers!

I confess to a particular fondness for John Irving.

Vacation reading, I have a peculiar taste for Tom Clancy books.

I'll add Milan Kundera, Umberto Eco, Joseph Campbell's "Masks of God" series, Elaine Pagels, Richard Dawkins, Stephen J Gould, Bertrand Russell.

I have to read too much at work, so my recreational pace is a bit off, but those recommendations in the other posts will be duly noted!

I just finished Jackie Susann's "The Love Machine" and now Im reading "The Danger" by Dick Francis. When I finish that I'll start "Popism: The Warhol 60's."

What people like to read is bilge, but what we got for Christmas is not?

Can someone please 'splain the difference between Off Topic and Bilge?

In keeping with the Bilge tradition, I'm reading Modern Drunkard Magazine.

Just finished "Sock" by Penn Gillete (yeah, the guy from penn & teller)

Weird serial killer novel told from the point of view of a sock monkey puppet who likes to quote pop music in every paragraph.

Actually dug it quite a bit, but may not be for everyone....for those interested in stanger fare, check it out.

Here are some of the better writing (and picture looking) that I have experienced this past week......

• Nick Hornby's 'Songbook' collection of essays about his favorite songs is very good - some of the best music criticism I have ever read.

• I just finished Volume 1 of the 7 volume, 3300 page 'Rising Up and Rising Down' by William Vollman. And I must say that I am impressed, and looking forward to reading the other 6 volumes. Highly recommended for those interested in a serious and not-light-hearted look at history, philosophy, ethics, death, and murder, as Vollman addresses the issue of 'When is it justified for individuals and nations to use violence.' The publishers recently came out with a single condensed volume that may be more accessible to most people.

• and to keep my mind and body light-hearted, I've just paged through volumes 1 and 2 of 'The History of Men's Magazines' (my Xmas gift to myself - volumes 3 -6 will be released later) I haven't read the essays yet - just looked at the pictures, as I am a fan of vintage glamour and beauty. Check out some of the sample pages at
  http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/sex/new/facts/03830.htm
  http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/sex/new/facts/03812.htm

Another big winner from the same publisher responsible for 'The Book of Tiki.'

Vern

I like to read just about anything. If I'm in the bathroom without something good to read, I'll read the bowl cleaner bottle, the tissue box anything! I enjoy reading the New York times best sellers, old 50's cataloges, old house decorating books, old how to books as well as current titled DYI.books written by explorers (just finished a good one by Carolyn Mytinger) Old cook books, drink books, the list goes on...

'Rising Up and Rising Down' -- at 7 volumes, this sounds like a true labor of love; I'm going to have to look into that set.

Right now I'm reading Soren Kierkegaard's 'Practice in Christianity' (Anti-Climacus,!!) Paul Johnson's 'A History of Christianity' and 'On Playing the Flute' by Johann Joachim Quantz.

On 2004-12-26 19:53, TikiGoddess wrote:
I just finished Jackie Susann's "The Love Machine" and now Im reading "The Danger" by Dick Francis. When I finish that I'll start "Popism: The Warhol 60's."

TikiGoddess, I've got a copy of "The Love Machine" (although I haven't read it yet). My last wife was a Jackie Susann freak. I've still got her copy of one of the original "Valley Of The Dolls" scripts.

My favorite books are in order:

1984
Ask The Dust
Pimp

I was just diving for pearls in the depths of Bilge and found this thread. I'm assuming new posts to it ended a little over five years ago because that's when Bibliostream went global and most of us stopped reading books and started getting them beamed directly into our mindports. Or something like that.

I'm reading A Handful of Dust***** by Evelyn Waugh. It was published in 1934 and is a contemporary story of that time about a group of more-or-less upper class "friends" in England (none of them, as of yet, very admirable). A book one can read with either tea or gin.

*****Don't go to this page if you have any plans to read the book. I was just glancing over it and saw a major plot point given away which I haven't yet reached in my reading. I guess I'd better catch up.

Right now, anything by James Herriot.

i like to read the cereal box and do the mazes. just finished tony bourdain's kitchen confidential. recently re-read the douglas addams trilogy, also re-reading the art of war.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The best writer out there.

i like reading books.

i have shelves for them.

you can read the titles on the spine.

"Despotism-A Pictorial history of tyranny" by
get this...
DAGOBERT D. Runes

almost done...

Reading now:
Herman Melville Typee
Weirdo Magazine
LOCAS The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez

New Clasicks (for me)
V.A.L.I.S. the last book that blew my mind.
Short history of nearly everything by that Bill Bryson guy

All time favorites...
Anything by Hermann Hesse (duh!)
Jorge Luis Borges
etc...
...

My niece encouraged me to read her Twilight series. I'm on the 3rd book (4 in the series) and I'm enjoying the story.

:)

I've just sbegun reading "Horns" by Joe Hill (Stephen KIng's son). It's a helluva lot of fun. It reminds me of his old man, Stephen, when he was just starting out.

I read a lot of Florida mysteries/thrillers. John D. MacDonald, Randy Wayne White, Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey (he signed the back of my Kindle last time I was in Key West), SV Date. But my favorite is Tom Corcoran by far.

Lately I've been on a Cussler Oregon Files kick. I'm on my third Oregon book in a week.

I also collect cookbooks and Star Wars books, though I'm culling down the Star Wars books now. I have a large collection of writing/editing/language/vocabulary/grammar/style books too.

I'll pretty much read anything you put in my hand, though.