I read a lot, but a lot of it is very ephemeral. Newspapers, web pages, magazines. What I get the most pleasure and satisfaction about, over the long term, though, are books. Mostly fiction and technical books, neither of which am I particularly good at completing. In recent weeks, I've had little desire to read the news, combined with an urge to escape, and it felt worth it to me to keep a record of what I've been reading.

Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything. A fabulous book about food and eating. It was impossible to read this book for very long without getting up and wandering into the kitchen for a snack. And it was hard to put the book down in general -- Steingarten is an intoxicating, tempting writer. The first chapter, about eating everything, was particularly relevant for me, because after sixteen years of a semi-vegetarian diet (I've never given up dairy, eggs, fish, or seafood, so I can't claim to really be a vegetarian), I'm planning on adding red meat and poulty back into my diet. (5 November 2001.)

Carl Hiassen, Lucky You. Again, fun junk. I think this is my favorite of Hiassen's novels. (4 November 2001.)

Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass. (Read aloud to Susan and Matthew.) I'd heard wonderful things about the His Dark Materials series, and they're all true. What a wonderful children's book for adults! It may be too dark and scary for young children, but it's a wonderfully told tale, and very exciting. (And book 2 looks just as promising.) (3 November 2001.)

Steven Pinker, Words and Rules. Who would have thought a book about regular and irregular verbs, and with the aspects of the brain managing them, could be this long or this much fun. I'll admit that I lost some interest in the book towards the end, but I learned a lot from it. (24 October 2001)

Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm. I exepcted more from this book, but it never really caught my interest. The details of the fishing life sound horrific and hard, but nothing about it was compelling for me. (19 October 2001)

Ed McBain, King's Ransom. (Audiobook.) I've never read any Ed McBain before, but I've always heard good things; it felt a bit dated, but really is a classic police procedural. Too bad so many of his books are out of print. This book is also the source of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, which is one of the most magnificent movies I've ever seen. (18 October 2001)

Penelope Fitzgerald, The Means of Escape. I love some of Fitzgerald's novels; on the other hand, this posthumously published collection of short stories was a let down. One or two stories made a small impression, the rest all felt empty and static. (16 October 2001)

Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys. (14 October 2001)

Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun. (13 October 2001)

Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. (5 October 2001)

Ethan Canin, Carry Me Across the Water. (3 October 2001)

Allen Kurzweil, The Grand Complication. This quirky novel starts out well, but doesn't really go anywhere. I ended up finding all the characters almost pathetic. (29 September 2001)

David Lodge, Thinks... (27 September 2001)

David Czuchlewski, The Muse Asylum. More a novella than a novel – almost a long version of a short story, in fact, in its style – this first venture is both entertaining and flawed. Because it was his senior thesis and so much of it takes place at Princeton, there's a lot of familiarity for me in it, and that made it a little easier for me to read. I'd probably read the next thing he writes, but I'd hope he has some broader experiences first. (22 September 2001)

Carl Hiassen, Double Whammy, Native Tounge, Skin Tight, and Strip Tease. Junk, but fun junk. I'd never read Hiassen, but Susan and I heard him in an interview on the radio, and he was very entertaining, so I gave his books a try. I feel a little unclean for having read them, but I they're enjoyable page turners. A slightly wackier and more cynical version of Elmore Leonard. (September 2001)