Adding to the list for variety and shorter summer reading is David Sedaris’ collection of short stories.

Terry Pratchett, the Discworld series. Everyone I know wants to read them in order, and I say to heck with that. Grab one, read the back, see if you’re interested. Read a few out of order. Then, if you’re still into it, read them in order (nowadays, the later ones are printed so that the list runs backwards. Book one is either The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic, I never remember which).

Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide, etc. 5 volumes of craziness. Yeah, it’s the end of the world, and Vogons are involved, but will a little bit of bad poetry stop me from liking it? No. Just good crazy fun.

Um… Wait, what else do I read, besides class stuff? Uh, I guess I read class stuff. I could probably recommend individual items in the way of Renaissance history / literature theory, hispanic issues (or crazy drag queen literature like Sirena Selena, available in translation), or random things.

For picture books, if you like Russia / tsars / the Anastasia myth, Peter Kurth’s Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra is filled with pictures and history (including a short section on the infamous Faberge eggs).

For poetry: Midaregami (Tangled Hair), or a compilation named River of Stars, both by Yosano Akiko.

Knitting history: No Idle Hands by Anne McDonald is on my wish list (so I haven’t read it, but it looks interesting).

Young Adult type reading: The Princess Bride, by William Goldman (if you’ve never read it).

Into comics? Glance at Ranma 1/2 or Maison Ikkoku (the manager knits!) by Rumiko Takahashi, Love Hina or Negima by Ken Akamatsu, Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya, or for the very risque, Lupin III by Monkey Punch, if you can find it.

If you liked curious incident, then you may like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Very good, I found it to be a quick read. It’s a boy who’s father is killed and leaves behind a key. The son thinks the key is a game and he has to find out what it opens. He travels all over the city to try to find out what it opens.

And if you enjoyed Bridget Jones, I highly suggest anything by Marian Keyes. It’s light quick chick books, but with an interesting story. She has a series about the Walsh sisters. An Irish family of 5 girls, each of which has some major life changing event happen to them. The books are anybody out there, watermelon, angels, and rachel’s last holiday.

But if you really don’t want to think and want to read a book in a weekend, there is Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. A New Jersey bounty hunter who has no idea what she’s doing. The story lines are not complicated at all and there are lots of things to laugh at (like how during the first few books she dresses in typical 90′s Jersey wear of spandex shorts!)

And now a blatant plug for my new favorite site! http://www.bookmooch.com which is great for all avid readers with limited space. It’s a free book trading website. I love it and have a stack of 20 books now waiting to be read. And I don’t feel bad about sending people my books since I know they’re going to fellow avid readers.

I hate Tom Robbins.

I love Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris, but I get way more out of listening to the audiobooks, since their voices, styles, etc. are so distinctive and so much a part of their writing. But S.Vowell is perfect for the kind of light-but-not-fluffy reading you want. *Assassination Vacation* is my favorite (I might even have mentioned this when we had lunch?).

If you like mysteries, Sujata Massey is pretty cool and more interesting (I think) than most mysteries. There are actually a lot of Asian American women mystery writers that do really neat stuff with the genre.

When I want light, I also like to revisit Roald Dahl, both his children’s books and his short stories for grown-ups.

How do you feel about graphic novels? I like Marjane Satrapi, Erika Lopez, and Neil Gaiman.

It’s very, very funny. Really.

About some female writers…what about Margaret Atwood?