Non-Fiction x 5.

Feeling the need to read things that aren't made of LCD screen pixels, I dipped into Half-Price Books recently and emerged with these selections from the non-fiction clearance shelves*:

2010 summer reading

1. Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert: A Freakonomics-type of book that touches on why certain things make us (un)happy, even if we'd thought otherwise, and dips into "psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and behavioral economics," according to the back. Well all right, then.
   
   
2. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser: Not that I eat fast food very often anymore (road trips are usually the culprit), but I'm looking for any reason to give it up altogether. This seems like a good way to do it.
   
   
3. Lucky Child by Loung Ung: Adding to my collection of Asian-American memoirs, this time from a Cambodian voice. I can't get enough of reading these.
   
   
4. In Defense Of Elitism by William A. Henry III: A semi-heavy book about the domestic policy debate on egalitarianism (obviously, the author argues against it). This should be interesting to read; I consider myself a liberal but I'm on the fence regarding this issue.
   
   
5. Apollo's Fire by Michael Sims: A tour of what happens on planet Earth during a single day through the lenses of astronomy, nature, physics and a little bit of mathematics. Ahhh, science.

I'm almost finished with Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller, an accessible book about attempting to find the deeper, true meaning of God and life, recommended by a friend. It's kinda refreshing to read about religion once in a while and nicely kicks off a well-rounded set of topics. The addition of my five new books should make for very engaging reading for the rest of the summer months.

To the anonymous commenter in my previous entry on books: I tried to find Ender's Game in the store without success. I'll have to borrow it from the library.

*Total cost was only $10.44! Definitely worth it.

Page-Turners.

You'd think I'd want to give my brain some sort of break from reading after graduating a couple of weeks ago. After all, I'd been nose-deep in textbooks and PowerPoint presentations for months, scanning line upon line of text and trying to retain it all. Although my eyes sometimes felt like they were simultaneously melting away and turning into dried up little coconut husks, I find myself cracking open more books.

I've always loved to read for pleasure ever since I can remember. From Choose Your Own Adventure books and the Hardy Boys series as a little kid, to horror and sci-fi in high school, leading up to books covering sociology and different aspects of world history and culture today, you'd find me in a corner somewhere turning pages.

Topic-wise, my reading tastes vary widely. I still love reading fiction (although I tend to stay away from mysteries, westerns and romance novels) but I've branched out into philosophy, science, and the occasional foray into geopolitics. I've been slowly collecting memoirs written by Asian/Asian-American authors for a while; I am keenly interested in that particular perspective for obvious reasons and will resume building the collection once I have some income to devote to it.

For now, though, I've been reading random books found at the condo and my parents'. Over the past two or three weeks, I've read:

1. Insomnia by Stephen King: not nearly as scary as I'd remembered
2. Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas & Micah Sparks: recommended by my mom; a fast and light memoir
3. I'll Steal You Away by Niccolo Ammaniti: a dollar-store find! Sentimental, airy fiction that has me interested in reading some more work by the author

I've just started re-reading Forever by Pete Hamill, a strange but compelling fantasy novel spanning three centuries. I vaguely remember how it ends, but I saw it sitting on the bookshelf this past weekend and picked it up, having just finished my last book. I expect to have it completely read by the end of the week, so to the meager number of Perpetual Mixtape readers: Do you have any recommendations for (light or heavy) summer reading? I'm open to most anything. Please leave a comment!