Y'all read some heavy-a$$ed stuff. I guess I got that out of my system in the '60's and '70's cuz now I'm reading things like Swank Magazine, Harley Enthusiast, Janet Ivanovich, Huckleberry Finn (for the umpteethn time), Rolling Stone, Barron's online, and Consumer Reports (love that stuff).

Just sayin'...

Ron

I like to read Huckleberry Finn at least once every two years. It's my all time favorite book. I have an audiobook of it read by Patrick Frahey that is an absolute delight. That guy gets the voices so well.

What I really like is pulp fiction such as the books of Jim Thompson or James Ellroy. The Killer Inside Me and The Big Nowhere are probably numbers 2 and 3 on my list.

In France, where I live, both Jim Thompson and James Ellroy are considered MAJOR writers - something I actually agree with, especially with regard to Ellroy, of whom I have read more.

I read a lot of blogs about education, politics and linguistics. I'm also a news junkie, so a follow that quite a bit as well.

If it hasn't got end-notes and a bibliography, I'll pass. ;~) And I check Scienceblogs several times a day. Mostly Pharyngula and Dispatches from the Culture wars.

I read enough of the heavy stuff in college ...English Lit minor...Physical Biology major...

Now I read whatever I feel like reading...nothing I don't.

stormy

I absolutely love Mark Twain!

Even in San Antonio.

He became very bitter and even I would say angry at god. "What is man?" And other short stories...


My all time favorite "How I edited an agricultural paper once"

I have Moby Dick on my iphone i read it 2 or 3 times a year. Red Storm Rising is another favorite. Ww2,napoleonic era and middle ages/ Hanseatic League histiry. And any novel about sailing in Napoleon times.

Do you have any specific suggestions for Hanseatic League history?

Die Hanse - Heinz Groob is a good one.

"The Mormon Mirage" by Latayne C. Scott. It picks apart most of Mormonism pretty well right from the start, but puts a pro-Christian spin on it which I find weird.

How do people not see through all religion after Mormonism fails to be what it claims?

I read a lot of horror/fantasy/sci-fi/mythology based books. Anne Rice is one of my favourite authors and I also like Laurell K. Hamilton, even though her novels can be on the trashy side. Neil Gaiman and Gregory Maguire are great as well.

When I read non-fiction, I tend to read books about the human psyche and food politics.

Out of interest, have you read anything by Michael Moorcock?

No but I'm interested...what does he write and what it's all about?

Am I the only one on this board that owns a G@d D@mn TV? There is only so much free time in any given day, and I'll be d@mned if I'm going to miss Andy Griffith reruns, to risk paper cuts, reading something I could probably find on Turner Classic Movies if I wait long enough.

lol...if it makes you feel better I also watch a LOT of television, especially since I obtained a DVR. My job provides plenty of time to read and I'm a fast reader so I read about 2-5 books a month.

Dennis Lehane is by far, my favorite current author.

I like Chelsea Handler:

Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea.
My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

some great fiction books that I like to go back to time and again are:
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas

And, often in the spring, I'll remember "When April with her Showers sweet, pierced the drought of March to the root", and look for my old battered copy of...
Canterbury tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

I find that I pick up new nuances each time I read them.

I had to study Mark Twain and Shakespeare in school and was put off of both, for life.

Y'all is appropriate when you don't know that you'll have more than two responses. LOL

BTW, I'm in Texas, and I'm fixnin' tah kick your ass for deriding my use of y'all. ;)

Just sayin'...

Ron

Like true crime and have read all Ann Rule books. Also read a lot of history and unsolved crime and military history.

unworthy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Like true crime and have read all Ann Rule books.
> Also read a lot of history and unsolved crime and
> military history.

I love Ann Rule

I love Ann Rule too. Have all her books as well as over 300 other true crime books. Love True Crime.

I usually read 2 or 3 books at a time. 1 True Crime,1 something to do with Mormonism (right now it's "The Mormon Hierarchy" by D. Michael Quinn. Great book-all 900 pages of it) and I read lots of books on WW11 and the Holocaust.I buy all my books because I read them usually twice. Although My 5 huge bookcases are totally full and the dining room became the library because of all my books.

Ann Rule fan here also-- what do you think of the made-for-tv-movies they are making of her books?

The backstory is the story in her case and film just doesn't cut it. By the time Rule gets to business, you feel like you went to school with him AND her!

I read a lot and have almost ruined my eyes, so I save them for computing and listen to a lot of audio books. Last one being "Life of Buddha" by Jack Kerouac.

Seriously, I need a recovery group for the book problem. If I throw one away, I buy six more.


Anagrammy

It's a huge tome about the geology along I-80. The section on Wyoming, in particular, is fascinating. I used to consider Wyoming as looking like the surface of the Moon, only less charming. The geologic history of WY is jaw-dropping.

Second most read book: An Imaginary Tale: the Story of i (square root of -1) by Paul Nahin. Our own Exmo science author Duwayne Anderson gave this book a hugely enthusiastic review on Amazon, and if you are at all curious about why anyone on God's green earth would read (or write) a book like that, see Duwayne's review.

Book I most read when leaving Mormonism (while still a BYU student - why leave the easy way!) Housewife to Heretic, by Sonja Johnson. it is one of only two books I have owned where I actually literally wore out the first copy I owned. (The other was "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid")

Factoid: Godel Escher Bach was the very first book ever sold on Amazon. It is a book on the philosophy of computer science. It is now 32 years old, and still in print. Computer books generally have the shelf life of a gallon of milk.

I like this thread.
Books I've read more than once:

Class by Paul Fusell(funniest sociology book ever written)
Catch 22, Joseph Heller(tragic comedy)
1984, George Orwell(epic dystopian novel)
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley(same as above, only different)
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien(the dark splendor of Mirkwood!)
The Book of Revelation, St. John(a dense, cobweb-filled nightmare)
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut(genius view of humanity)
Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut(same as above, only different)
No Man Knows My Name, Fawn Brodie(this one's a corker!)

I prefer WWII histories. Just finished The Men with the Pink Triangle.

I also like historical fiction.

Currently reading The House of Dies Drear (about a haunted house that was used for the underground railroad in the US)

Swank Magazine?!?!?!?

The first time I ever saw one of those was the one with a chick that had 3 tits.