Geeky books: Pretty much anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, or the sadly late, great Douglas Adams. The Callahan's series by Spider Robinson (except for the most recent one, which stunk). Stanislaw Lem's _The Cyberiad_. _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter Beagle and _The Neverending Story_ by Michael Ende. Less geeky books: Douglas Coupland's books, especially _Microserfs_. _The Moonstone_ by Wilkie Collins; it's kind of like non-moralizing Dickens. _62: A Model Kit_ by Cortazar--disorienting but great. _My Life and Hard Times_ by James Thurber (included in _The Thurber Carnival_, which is easier to find, has lots of other great writing, and is slightly cheaper). _Remains of the Day_, Kazuo Ishiguro. _An Echo of Heaven_, Kenzaburo Oe. Most things by John Irving. (On a side note, can anyone tell me why nearly all his books have bears in them? Drama geek books: _Zoo Story_ by Edward Albee. _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_ and _Travesties_ by Tom Stoppard (and anything else, really). Nonfiction: Stephen Pinker's _The Language Instinct_ and Douglas Hofstadter's _Go:del, Escher, Bach_. Bad: I realize that I may be stirring up some controversy here since I know a lot of people who love it, but _Confederacy of Dunces_ is my least favorite book of all time and IMO one of the most overrated. I threw my copy away when I was halfway through, and I don't throw books away. I'm not a big fan of Kobo Abe's _Woman of the Dunes_, either--it's like, well, being stuck in a hole in the middle of a sand dune for the rest of your life (which, incidentally, is what it's about--effective, I guess, but not enjoyable). Current book: Neil Gaiman's _Stardust_, which is blowing me away with its understated awesomeness. Lindsay
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