Whatcha Readin'?

[Nobert]

My reading habits are a bit sporadic. I go intensely on again/off again, and it's been awhile since I read an actual book.

But tonight I've been going through Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons by Kurt Vonnegut. I've also been skipping around A History of Lettering by Nicolete Gray, which I should get a move on, because I think it has to go back to the library in the next week or so.

I guess I'm curious as to what graphic designers read because I tend to think of them as the kind of people who might toss aside a book after three pages because they don't like the typeface, or the title page is badly kerned. Also (and I can't emphasize this enough), I'm a bit bored right now. So after this, I'm hitting the books.

Current reading? Favorite books/authors? Has this thread been tried before (I wouldn't be surprised)?

[Scarlett]

Because I'm doing covers, when I can I try and read the books that go with them. Some are great, others are horrid (they're all self published). But that's the way of the business- I'll still read books that I love or that are horrid published through the huge publishing houses.

I'm a big reader because I'm a writer as well, it's a huge part of my life.

I'm waiting to get on to some books I bought about book covers though, but fiction I'd like to get back in to some Foundation and Second Foundation.

[garricks]

Currently reading the Steve Jobs biography. If you're really interested in what I read, follow me on goodreads.com.

[Scarlett]

Goodreads, yaaaaaaaay!

[seamas]

Moby Dick.

It's pretty awesome.

[KitchWitch]

I'm reading Don't Dump the Dog by Randy Grim. Got it as a holiday gift last year after we adopted our rescue dog. It was written by the guy that runs the shelter that rescued Maggie. And it's hilarious.

Prior to this I read a canning/preserving cookbook and I have Ellen Dugan's Cottage Witchery up next.

[AlwaysLearning]

I have such an addiction to books it's unbelievable. I'm about the only person I know who can sit and read text books, REALLY classic novels such as Wuthering Heights, or more modern reads like the Twilight series and be equally entertained.

Every once in a while there will be the ONE. A book I pick up, and I'm almost manic until I finish it. THOSE are my favorites. Books that are well written enough that I completely forget the world around me and enter a different place for a while.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series does that for me. So does Watership Down. And Gone with the Wind. Pride and Prejudice...I could go on and on...

[Bob]

"Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy" by Martin Lindstrom.

I read his first book ('Buyology') and enjoyed a lot of the 'leading edge marketing science' stuff in there (who knew that those all so pricey brain imaging scanners were being used to help marketers?).

This one is much more of the same and seems to catalogue most of the 'invisible hands' that push and nudge our brains into the buying tools that they have become.

Actually, he begins the book describing with a funny description of an experiment where he tried (unsuccessfully) to completely remove himself from branding influences for a month.

I like the anecdotes and torrid details of just how far Big Brander has gone towards in terms of technology and investments to assure we keep faithful -- but he doesn't seem to offer any 'alternative' to this system. Not too surprising, since he's a well-paid marketing guru. But it's this 'well, what are we gonna do, right?' attitude that kind of leaves me sighing. Especially as I consider myself mostly a branding hermit.

[Kool]

I just finished up "The dark at the end" By F. Paul Wilson. It's the final "Repairman Jack" novel. Then I read the first 100 pages of "End of Days" by Robert Gleason. After he introduced yet another of about 800 characters I bailed. Currently I'm reading "You're Next" by Gregg Hurwitz.

[Yossarian]

I'm about half way through Tom Jones right now. It's a long ass book and my version is heavily annotated to boot. I'm finding it surprisingly readable and amusing for something written in the mid 1700s.

My reading is pretty evenly split between science fiction and classics. I tend toward "hard" science fiction (as in they at least try to tie it to theoretical science instead of completely making it up) but I like a lot of the pulpy golden age stuff too.

And speaking of tossing aside a book because you don't like the typeface. I once passed on an otherwise rather nicely made hardback of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain because the cover was set in Hobo.

I have a bit of a fetish for antique or other well-crafted books. I actually hide some of them from my wife because she can be rough on books and I can't stand to see her abusing them.

"Hey don't you have a copy of.......?"

"No. No I do not. You'll have to check it out from the library."