I’m going through a bit of an “old Kurt Vonnegut” phase. I recently read Player Piano, now I’m reading Sirens of Titan.
Everything I can find by Robertson Davies. Can’t believe I got so old and just discovered this guy.
Davies is deep and insightful without being difficult or obtuse. (A plus for me.) And stuff happens – it’s not just observation and revelation, although there’s plenty of that too.
He’s one of those writers with a deceptively plain style. You don’t realize how rich his writing is because it goes down so easy. As soon as I finished The Fifth Business, I wanted to start reading it all over. (The cover art just sucks though, and the blurb is not helpful if you’re looking to find out what the book’s about.)
Am also perusing For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most by Ronald Schwartz, which is where I found out about this Davies guy.
After my move is complete, I’m going to be reading *Toulouse-Lautrec and the Fin-De-Siecle* by David Sweetman to prepare for an upcoming museum exhibition.
I just finished Rendezvous with Rama By Arthur C. Clarke about humanity meeting with their first extraterrestrial encounter. And a week before that, I finished The Moon is Harsh Mistressp by Robert Heinlan about a revolution on the ‘penal colony’ known as the Moon.
Just finished The Fall by Albert Camus. It’s… It’s hard to explain, is what it is. Basically, it’s the confessions of a lawyer who was known for being incredibly virtuous and yet lived a life of debauchery. It’s similar to The Stranger in that it’s written in the first person, and yet remains so detached from everything. I liked it.
I’m reading Moneyball about how Billy Beane took the second smallest payroll in baseball (Oakland A’s) and produced a team that easily gives teams with 5x their payroll a run for their money. Really interesting behind-the-scenes book. It’s written by Michael Lewis who I believe is best known for Liar’s Poker.
Also reading a book called Unsinkable about the Titanic that I picked up at the dollar store. Also really interesting so far.
Not sure how you caught me reading two seemingly intelligent non-fiction books. I’m just as likely to be reading something trashy my mother-in-law gave me, heh.
(Breaking my silence/popping my posting-cherry/ending my days of lurking)
I’m currently reading Moneyball by Michael Lewis and Carnage and Culture by Victor Davis Hanson.
Right now I’m reading Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is rather good, a how-to guide I got from a used book sale on handwriting analysis, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, and The Dead Zone by Stephen King.
Oh, and congrats on the cherry poppage, there, Bulla Felix. Welcome to the ever-so addicting boards…I bet soon you’ll find that you’ve been turned into a regular posting nympho. 
I never knew until I read Gaiman’s commentary in The Sandman Companion that my favorite character in the whole glorious epic–Wilkinson–was a shrew. I had always thought he was a rat.
Re-reading (for the 4th time) The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I was a wee bit disapointed att his latest - Wee Free Men, so I decided I wanted to read on of his best.
I’ve just started Salt by Mark Kurlansky.
I read Cod by the same author last year.
You might not believe how fascinating these books are unless you give them a try. In a way, they are historical novels. The author uses both cod, literally the fish, and salt, the mineral, to tell our collective histories across all races and continents.
They are the kind of books where you stop every few pages and think: “I didn’t know that!”
This post! Bawahhaha!
No seriously, “Choak” by Chuck Palahniuk, and I have The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett as night-time comfort reading.
I am halfway through Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. This kid goes fighting in World War I and ends up in a hospital bed horrendously wounded. The whole novel drifts back and forth in time and through dreams without much explanation, and there’s no internal punctuation (commas, dashes, etc). I like it so far. It’s a bit easier to follow than it sounds (but not much easier).
Case Studies in Library Security. No, summer classes haven’t started yet, but it caught my eye on the new book shelf, and I’m enjoying it.
Mostly Harmless By Douglas Adams, the fifth book the the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchikers Guide Trilogy.
My least favorite in the series, but I’m reading it over to see if I missed any jokes the first 3 times.
Hey, that’s one of my all-time favorites! I re-read it last month, then sent it on to someone else on the SDMB. Great author!
I just started The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolf. I’m only in the first few chapters, so I don’t have too much to summarize yet.
The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins (about evolution; I asked for it because Douglas Adams speaks highly of it in The Salmon of Doubt), and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, by (!) Douglas Adams. [Somehow my past birthday just sorta revolved around him - the other book I got was Terry Jones’ novelization of Starship Titanic].
I haven’t decided which to finish first; one will obviously be a much quicker read than the other. After that, I suppose I’ll read the other book I was given, Vonnegut’s Hocus Pocus.
Little Friend by Donna Tartt. For a author who puts out one book per decade, she’s pretty damn good.
1970’s small-town Mississippi, a 12 year old girl wants to solve the murder of her older brother who was killed when she was just a baby. Not recommended if you’ve got a snake phobia! 
Next in the queue is Drop City by T.C. Boyle.
Welcome aboard, then! I’m glad I started a thread that interested you. How are you liking these books? What is Carnage about?