It’s American Idol season, which means that most of my conversations with family and friends get short-circuited with outbursts of "Why was Allison in the bottom three!?" or "How come the judges won’t call Kris Allen a front-runner?!" or "J’enough with this fourth-judge business!" To help stave off these ugly incidents — not to mention my bastardization of French contractions — I’ve been on a particularly voracious reading kick, ripping through eight or nine books over the last six weeks. Currently sitting on my nightstand — while I try to find room on my heinously overcrowded bookshelves — are completed copies of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (unbelievably good, and unbelievably harrowing), Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City (a breezy chaser to McCarthy’s tale from the post-apocalypse), Lee Child’s The Hard Way (action-packed jaunt that kept keeping me up past my bedtime) and Michael Palmer’s The Second Opinion (trashy-ish, crowd-pleasing medical thriller), as well as my current project, Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black (I’m 90 pages in…and it’s pretty hard to put down!). Which brings me to my question: What’s sitting on your nightstand right this second? All must be revealed, people! And no substituting Shakespeare if there’s a Harlequin romance novel next to your alarm clock: Nightstand Inspection is a judgment-free exercise!
Nightstand Inspection! (Vol. 4): What are you reading right now?
Blog Roll
- Best Week Ever
- BuzzSugar
- Coolfer
- Dark Horizons
- Deadline Hollywood Daily
- Digital Music News
- Gold Derby
- Hits Daily Double
- Hollywood Elsewhere
- Hollywood Wiretap
- Huffington Post
- Hypebot
- Idolator
- jaded insider
- Lost Remote
- Movie City News
- Movie List
- MTV News
- Pop Candy
- PopBytes
- Popeater
- reality blurred
- Salon: Arts & Entertainment
- Stereogum
- The Beat
- The Programming Insider
- Thompson on Hollywood
- Tuned In
- TV Barn
- TV Tattle
- TVFanatic.com
- TVNewser
- Velvet Rope
Featured Video
Realite: Reality TV justice!
Worthy winners on ''Runway,'' ''ANTM''; just desserts on ''Top Chef'' and ''SYTYCD''; bonus Kris Allen!
More 
Today's Most Popular
-
-
The Music Mix American Music Awards: We live-blogged it!
-
-
Photo Gallery: American Music Awards '09 AMAs '09: Best/worst style -
The Music Mix Rihanna's AMAs comeback performance: How did she do?
Special Coverage
'Twilight' Saga: 'New Moon'
It's almost here! Get all the latest news, photos, video, and fan commentary leading up to the big premiere
More
Comments (1-30) of 234 Add your comment
As a graduate student, fiction equals an escape from academic monotony.
As it stands right now:
1. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Seth Grahame-Smith
3. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
4. Take the Cannoli – Sarah Vowell
Your choices sound really good, and I may want to pick up one or two that I haven’t read. I’m sort of loathe to admit what I’m reading, but, no judging, right? *grin* I’m currently in the middle of The Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler. It’s a “brain candy” adventure, but sometimes you just need those light reads, right? (And not admitting anything, but 75% of my reading may consist of “brain candy”. Hey, life is stressful; I have to have some lightness somewhere!)
Columbine by Dave Cullen. Cannot put that one down, then once I do I cannot sleep after. Probably not the best thing to keep on my nightstand.
I just finished Mao’s Last Dancer written by a ballet dancer who was trained in China during Mao’s regime. It’s a really good look at peasant life in China at that time and also how times have changed. I’m currently reading some book about how to parent difficult children called Beyond Logic, Consequences, and Control. Interesting, but I work light reading around it. I’m going to start reading either The Snow Princess (a novel) or We of the Never Never a memoir of the Australian outback.
Actually, I’m reading Shakespeare at the moment! That’s just the title though – it’s Bill Bryson mini-biography. Just finished The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner, and Watchmen. Next up will be Cross Bones, by Kathy Reich and then Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven.
I like to change things up a bit…
The second Sharing Knife novel, Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson.
1. The Wishsong of Shannara-Terry Brooks
2. The Word of God-Thomas M. Disch
3. Kushiel’s Dart – Jacqueline Carey
4. Wizard, The life and times of Nikola Tesla, Biography of a Genius-Marc Seifer
I read McCarthy’s The Road months ago, very bleak and very cool, and need to get another copy of Godel Escher Bach-Douglas Hofstadter so I can finish it.
Ooo, I also have “The Road” and “Tales of the City” on my nightstand. Ever present is “Pride and Prejudice” and I’m halfway through “Something to Tell You” by Hanif Kureishi
Lush Life by Richard Price
“Fool” by Christopher Moore, a bawdy riff on ‘King Lear’ so not quite Shakespeare, but close.
I just finished tearing through ‘The Meaning of Night’ and ‘The Glass of Time’ by Michael Cox. The first one’s a bit dense at times, but both are impossible to put down.
I finally invested in some new bookshelves so my nightstand is a little less populated than usual.
I’m reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah and am also reading The Memory of Water by Karen White for May’s Bookclub
I have the book Pres Hugo Chavez gave to Pres Obama as a gift during the summit this past wkend.
OPEN VEINS of LATIN AMERICA five centuries of the pillage of a continent by Eduardo Galeano
It was all over the news so thought i’d check it out. Well i went out and bought it…and MY GOD is it good!
It is basiclly the other side of the story and how EUROPE & THE USA used and abused all of latin america to benifit them in the past 5 centuries and left it in the state it is today.
Let’s see, right now there’s:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Cipher by Diana Pharoah Francis
Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
And I always have a Deverry novel by Katharine Kerr or a Jaspar Fforde book or a Sophie Kinsella book on hand for re-reading.
Buffy Omnibus Volume 3
manhunt: 12 day chase for lincolns killer
james swanson
awesome
Stuff White People Like, Christain Lander (it is based on his blog)
Long Shadows, Erin Hunter
I’m reading Patricia Cornwell, Book of the Dead. I love these Kay Scarpetta books
Just finished Saturday by Ian McEwan. It takes a little time to get into, but once you do its absolutely fabulous. I’m now in the middle of Me Talk Pretty One Day from David Sedaris, and up next is The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
World Without End by Ken Follett
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Lady and The Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
I look at every single food item differently since starting this book.
Awesome.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Facinating insight into success and all the different factors besides the obvious ones that contribute to it.
The Twitter feed of San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito. Neglecting: “Travels with Charley” by Steinbeck. Picked it up in Monterey a month ago, but between writing my own novel and Zito’s possibly herbally induced late-night tweets, the master is not getting attention.
I’m re-reading Angels and Demons in time for the movie in a few weeks. Praying to god (pun intended) this movie is better than The Da Vinci Code!
This is my favourite type of post! I always pick up great suggestions by reading the comments section. I’ve got a few on the go at the moment – Who’s Your City, Richard Floraida; Watchmen; and Coventry, Helen Humphreys
I swear, yesterday I was thinking ‘It’s time for another nightstand book check’! I’ve finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and I Lick My Cheese (a collection of notes from roommates), am currently reading From Dead to Worse. But I needed some suggestions for summer, and to my delight, here they are! Thank you, Michael, you read my mind!
Dune-Frank Herbert
Public Enemies-Bryan Burrough (in anticipation of the movie in July)
Thunderstruck-Eric Larson
The Dragon King’s Palace-Laura Joh Rowland
I Lost it at the Movies-Pauline Kael
I, Lucifer-Glen Duncan
Blade Runners, Deer Hunters, and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies-Michael Deeley
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. Although I’m finding it hard to read. Also Drown by Junot Diaz, I have read it a couple of times before but I just love it so.
Lolita, Twilight, & Confessions Of An Ugly Step Sister
Wally Lamb – “The Hour I First Believed”. Not as good as his first two novels but it’s nice to have him back. Has a Columbine angle to it.
“New Moon” and Virginia Woolf’s “Between the Acts”. How’s that for a combination of high and low culture?