Heh. Actually I’m mostly poking Rich; he’s been saying for months he ‘needs to get to all those books in the to be read pile’. heh.

See, the books in your ‘to read’ pile already hate you. Even though they might eventually get over their grudges at being snubbed for so long, it’s not clear they’ll ever quite understand.

It is imperative to always approach the books in your ‘to read’ pile with zero guilt or pity in your heart. If you’re fresh off a brand new book and you’re filled with a NEED to READ!, and you pick up a ‘to read’ book with zest and desire, then you have a hope of reestablishing the bonds between you and the poor, lonely abandoned book. On the other hand, if you glumly reach for a ‘to read’ book after having denied yourself that hot little number you pass every day down at the used bookstore, the book will sense your desire to be elsewhere and spurn you.

*ducks*

Yes, Mr. Brown is a little down on his tech. (I particularly liked the “mutating plaintext” that was everyone’s holy grail.) Still, if you ignore that, or just pretend to be in his fictitious world of technology, it is a quick, fun little thriller.

I would have to second Al Frankin (and Molly Ivins if you want the same subject matter, but slightly more serious). Lots of people like Michael Moore, but I find him annoying in large doses.

I might also have to second David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell, without even having read their print books. The two of them on This American Life are excellent! I snagged the “audiobook” of David Sedaris reading excerpts of his book in front of Carnagie Hall from iTunes when it was a dollar, which was also great.

Hm. Perhaps that’s severe. Okay, it felt like a book written about smart people by someone who’s studied them extensively. If you can ignore the fact that the author doesn’t understand the technical details he writes down, and if you can gloss over some pretty dumb sentences, then it’s a quick thriller. I’d still recommend Elmore Leonard or Joe Lansdale or somebody like that if you want a fun, engaging mystery/thriller thing. I like light reading, but I think that Dan Brown is below my personal tolerance for ‘light’.

More light reading: Anything by Christopher Moore (especially “The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove”). The oddly absorbing Cod. David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell.

Also worthwhile: Haruki Murakami, Bill Bryson. Lots of people hated Foucault’s Pendulum, but I thought it was charmingly and absurdly intricate. I recently enjoyed Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, which made a good riding-in-the-car book because I could laugh out loud and read choice passages to my carmates.