Which genres/types of books/things do you read?

Third time lucky...

We seem to have a lot of regular readers here, so I thought this could be interesting.

I read mostly Science Fiction and Fantasy, with occasional forays into Literature and more 'mainstream' fiction. I occasionally read reference works, though not very often. I read some art books, but again not very often.

I am an addict of the written word :)

You forgot erotica *grins*...which is something I read a lot of....

Does The Devil's Dictionary count as reference?

Books I've read or bought recently: Bread Machine Baking (yum!), Emotional Intelligence (hunter's suggestion, science?), Clive Barker's Sacrament (audiobook), Native Son by Richard Wright (audiobook, literature!), Alice in Wonderland (audiobook, research for a party I never actually made it to), a number of books on Crohn's disease...
Next up, The Robber Bride by Margret Atwood (steve and hunter recommendation - I really liked Handmaid's Tale) and Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (spirtual literature?). Both will be audiobooks.
Sorry for the spewage, I love telling people what I'm reading. It makes me feel cool.

Just read a bunch of literature for a college class - Henry James' Daisy Miller, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huck Finn, Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, and am now reading Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence for fun. I recently bought John Irving's A Widow for One Year and am always reading popular literature - Anne Rice, Stephen King, John Grisham, etc.

Bill, just a note, if the introduction of EI turns you off, just skip it. I found tone very different from the rest of the book.

I just finished V.S. Ramachandran's _Phantoms of the Brain_ which is probably the best book I will read this year. Now I am working on Sylvia Nasar's biography of John Nash, _A Beautiful Mind_ (schizophrenic mathematician--scary how much he reminds me of people I know), trading off with Sheri Tepper's _Six Moon Dance_ (her writing seems to be going downhill fast, but she has some neat paradigm shifts). I've got _A Good Enough Parent_ and a couple of Maeve Binchy stories and then I get to go use my trade credits for more!

I've just finished off some SF and not-quite-SF. Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness In The Sky" was excellent. Robert Silverberg's "The Alien Years" was not, but satisfied some masochistic desire for schlocky SF. Starhawk's "The Fifth Sacred Thing" was kinda cool and reminded me of what it was like living out in the SF bay area.

Yeah, I read that shortly after we moved and really enjoyed it. I love the main character's relationship with her deities.

I also read nature books (science with a naturalist bent, I guess) - just finished _Of Wolves and Men_ by Barry Holstun Lopez, it's a great book. I highly recommend his _Arctic Dreams_ as well. I've also recently finished _Infinite Jest_ by David Foster Wallace and _Someplace to be Flying_ by Charles de Lint.

bill: book spewage is why I created this :) I'm obsessed with them, it's quite interesting to see what people here are reading.

I just finished Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut (very very good), The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett (good if you have cats, probably not if you don't) and I'm currently reading Legends edited by Robert Silverberg (very good), A Users Guide To The Millennium by JG Ballard (a bit dense, but interesting) and The Dark Side Of The Sun by Terry Pratchett (just starting).

"Literature"?

Gee, I had no idea I read that much. Does anyone else out there read children's books? Everyone should check out Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I read a book named Godmother Night by Rachel Pollack a while back and liked it a lot (lesbian mystical stuff - fablescent too).

For school, I'm currently reading _A Tale of Two Cities_ by Charles Dickens. I'm finding it somewhat difficult to understand. There are so many twists and verbal irony; I'm not that good at finding the "deeper meaning" in a passage. I think if I read it again once I finish I'll get a lot more out of it. On my own, I read a lot of historical fiction or general fiction.

I really liked Godmother Night a lot

Me, too--thanks for turning me on to it, Romkey.

Supplicant: Great survey! I'm an addict, too. I used to read a lot of Sci Fi...Isaac Asimov rules! Have you read his auto-biography? Two THICK volumes, but a very fast and entertaining read.
Bill: You ARE cool!
I read a lot of non-fiction...computer books, spirituality, pyschology. But lately I'm into the Sue Grafton mysteries. She's very funny, and makes me laugh out loud.

A novel that had quite an impact on me was Flood Tide by Clive Cussler. The images from that book have stayed in my head for months. I highly recommend it...and don't let the first chapter turn you away...I would have given up on it if my sister hadn't told me it was really good. I'm very glad I kept reading.

SueBee: I've read lots of his short stories and his four robot novels, very very good I thought. Haven't gotten around to reading much else of his yet, but I will. I want to read his 2nd autobiography I, Asimov but I haven't gotten hold of a copy yet. I suspect the two volume one would be hard to find here :(

Supplicant - Asimov's robot novels are my favorites, and his short stories are a lot of fun. Would that book be hard to find there because it's old, or is he not popular there, or what? (Is "there" Australia?)

SueBee: Here is indeed Australia. He's popular here but I think the two volume one would be hard to find because of age. I have seen a copy of I, Asimov but it was a US edition, and personally I prefer the UK editions (which is what is mostly sold here).

Supplicant - I feel dumb asking this, but what would be the difference between the US and UK editions? Do they actually edit them differently to appeal more to a specific audience? Do they change the spellings of some of the words (i.e. colour vs. color)? Most people probably couldn't care less, but I'm always curious about that sort of thing...it fascinates me!

It's not a stupid question. They change spelling and punctuation most of the time, though not all of the time, I don't mind either way. They occasionally change little things within the book, but not usually. I have heard of English references (like say to a certain tv show or whatever) being changed to American ones for the US audience, but they don't change anything major.

The main thing is the actual book itself is different. They are often printed on different paper and the cover paintings are almost always different, so are the marketing blurbs on the back. I think the UK editions look nicer and I like the paper better. All a matter of personal preference really.

Thanks for the info, supplicant. I'm guessing that either Americans are too cheap to pay for better quality, or the readers of the UK editions have more discerning taste!

having gone book shopping in the US and the UK I can certainly attest to the higher cost of books in the UK. I have heard that this is partly a function of some semi-monopolistic regulatory arrangement in the publishing industry there.

I've recently become a voracious sci-fi reader.

phi: Yes, it's called the Net Book Agreement. Institutionalised price-fixing - we love it!

I read all types of books.

I am assigned books on foreign policy for my class, but i enjoy reading them.