so..what y'all readin'?

[Bozack]

Currently, I'm reading Illywhacker (quiet you!), by Peter Carey, apparently one of the best writers to come out of Australia (which, coupled with 50 cents, will buy you a cup of coffee). It's pretty good. Next up: John Dos Passos "American Trilogy."
What about you cats?

[slink]

Rereading Neuromancer right now, by tonight I'll be onto rereading Pashazade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, so that I can go onto Effendi, it's sequel, and then Fellaheen when it comes out in paperback.
I also have some more Murakami to read, Pattern Recognition - the latest Gibson, and Hey Nostradamus - the last Coupland book.

I feel like I need to read Diamond Age again, by Neal Stephenson, given it's one of my favourite books - the language in it being stunning, but I have so much else to read. And I need to reread Fouc*ult's Pendulum too. Here's hoping nothing new that I need read comes out. Crap though I have, erm, oh damn the latest Stephenson to read too, but I forget it's name.

[AugustWest]

Ah, Fouc*ult's Pendulum.  What a great book.  The Davinci Code isn't fit to share the planet with it.

Back on topic, I just finished :)'s People which I had read long ago. Enjoyed it even more the second time. LeCarre is a writer who transcends his genre. His characterizations are brilliant.

I'm in the middle of Claudius the God which is wonderful. I'd been looking for a copy in my used bookstore haunts and finally found one. Good stuff.

Also picked up My Three Years with Eisenhower by Capt. Harry Butcher. Butcher was a personal friend of Ike's who served as his naval aide throughout WWII. He kept a daily diary of Eisenhower's activities, both personal and official, through the war. Fascinating stuff. A re-read, but this is a good one to pick up and browse through.

[Limmo]

Chuck Klosterman's Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, which is a hoot.

Next up, a non-hoot: Erich Auerbach's Mimesis.

[Nabubrush]

Concurrently: The Fall, by Camus, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris - both oh so good and quotable, in wildly different ways.

Later, for not thinking, I have a couple of Donald E. Westlake books, and the last two Ender books by Orson Scott Card. Also, Be Cool, by Elmore Leonard. I like to not think too much when reading sometimes.

[Bozack]

Also, Be Cool, by Elmore Leonard. I like to not think too much when reading sometimes.

Yeah, I always bust out the Leonard when I just want something fun and good.

[AugustWest]

Later, for not thinking, I have a couple of Donald E. Westlake books,

Which ones, I love Westlake -- great stuff.  I'm also a big fan of Lawrence Sanders.

[Nabubrush]

Which ones, I love Westlake -- great stuff.  I'm also a big fan of Lawrence Sanders.

Right now, "Help, I am Being Held Prisoner" and "Smoke" - I like Lawrence Sanders, too, but have read all of his stuff and am a little upset about his publisher sending out the vultures to pick on his corpse.

[jay-ell]

Crap though I have, erm, oh damn the latest Stephenson to read too, but I forget it's name.

Cryptonomicon?  Eeeexcellent.  

Sounds like Slink and I have the same taste in fiction...

I'm reading a book of Asimov mysteries a friend gave me as I unwind in the evenings, but I've just bought a copy of Health Care Meltdown by Robert LeBow, which explains why US Healthcare sucks ass.  It's sort of a passion of mine.  When I'm done with that, I'll probably read Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, which I got for my birthday.  And I'm reading a friend's screenplay in my spare time, which is copious these days.

[Asherdan]

Guilty confession: I've been revisting the Hunter S. Thompson collection The Great Shark Hunt and Generation of Swine is on deck.

It's just one of those things, ya know?

[slink]

Cryptonomicon?  Eeeexcellent.  

Not the one I was thinking of, though it's superb. I was talking of... Quicksilver. Bingo.

[Gimpson]

I'm in the middle of Speaker for the Dead by OSC, which I am not enjoying as much as Ender's Game, and Fraud by David Rakoff, the poor man's David Sedaris.  It will most likely be my first and last David Rakoff book.

[jay-ell]

I'm in the middle of Speaker for the Dead by OSC, which I am not enjoying as much as Ender's Game, and Fraud by David Rakoff, the poor man's David Sedaris.  It will most likely be my first and last David Rakoff book.

Warning: The series goes waaaay downhill (IMHO, of course) after Speaker.  The characters are less compelling after they grow up.  

As a side note, my former roommate's Mom goes to the same Temple as OSC.  She's friends with his wife.  It's neat.

[sjlimmer]

I've been working my way through Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy for a while now, and just started up with Updike's Rabbit Redux, but I'm having a hell of a time with it, because I already hate Rabbit so much. Maybe I'll give it a miss and go back to Evelyn Waugh (just finished Decline and Fall a week or so ago, and I still have Vile Bodies and Black Mischief waiting around).

[V-Adore]

I was put off of OSC by Lost Boys (if I'm remembering the title right) -- a modern-era horror/suspense thing which implied that playing D&D made you a pedophile and featured the worst semantic debate in the history of literature. I should try the Ender books, but sooo much inertia.

Right now I'm mostly doing class-related reading -- Paco Underhill's Why We Buy and Rachel Bowlby's Carried Away, for a class on the sacrality of shopping in modern America. Fairly interesting stuff, really; Underhill's is far more about consumer psychology, while Bowlby focuses on the anthropological approach.

Other than that, it's primarily been the two American Splendor collections I got for Christmas. Harvey Pekar is some sort of bodhisattva, I'm pretty sure.