...Asking me to pick a favorite book is kind of like asking me to choose between my children. If I had children. You know what I mean.

For a more current list of what I'm reading, click here.

nonfiction...



(math, computers, logic, art, music): Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

(biography/autobiography): Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Heat by Bill Buford, Genius by James Gleick, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, A Circle of Quiet by Madeline L'Engle, Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

(food science): The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

(law/politics): The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong

fiction...



(literary): Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Possession by A.S. Byatt, If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino, The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies, Immortality by Milan Kundera, The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

(historical): The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

(magical realism): Little, Big by John Crowley, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

(postmodern): Hunger's Brides by W. Paul Anderson

(mystery): Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (really, anything involving Poirot or Holmes)

(short stories): Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories by E.M. Forster, Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro, The Complete Saki by Saki, The Jeeves Omnibus by P.G. Wodehouse

(childhood favorites): Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

(science fiction, classic): Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

(science fiction, cyberpunk): Earth by David Brin, Idoru by William Gibson, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

(science fiction, the human element): The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh, Childe Cycle by Gordon R. Dickson

(fantasy, classic): Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Discworld by Terry Pratchett

(fantasy, modern): Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, American Gods by Neil Gaiman

(fantasy, epic): Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey, The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

(fantasy, fable): Fudoki by Kij Johnson, The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, Song for the Basilisk by Patricia McKillip

(fantasy, young adult): The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, The Last Herald-Mage by Mercedes Lackey, Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, Temeraire by Naomi Novik

mostly pictures...



(graphic novel): Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

(manga, boys): GetBackers by Rando Ayamine and Yuyo Aoki, Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki, Hunter X Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi

(manga, girls): Hanazakari no Kimitachi e by Hisaya Nakajo, Kaguyahime by Reiko Shimizu

plays...



(quasi-historical): Becket by Jean Anouilh, Hamlet by Shakespeare, The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard

(absurdist): Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

(just awesome): Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, The Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

poets...



5.0 Poets: Kelli Russell Agodon (particularly How Killer Blue Irises Spread), Robert Frost, A.E. Housman (especially the later stuff), Anne Michaels, Pablo Neruda, William Shakespeare (love the sonnets), Alfred (Lord) Tennyson



List subject to change. Though probably it'll just keep getting bigger.