I've had several requests for titles of books I'm currently reading, though why anyone would care about what I'm reading is beyond me. But, I do like to share the stuff I'm into, so....

I'm a voracious reader. I read as often and and much as I can. I love things in print, words and images, and my library is pretty large. I come from a family of readers. My dad and his brother are/were surrounded by books.

I came by my love of books honestly as my father was also a non-stop reader. He instilled this love of reading in all his children. It was his eclectic taste in books that fostered so much of my fascination with the printed word/image. Lying about the house would be various paperback mystery novels, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, Carter Brown, John D. MacDonald, Milo March Mysteries, James Bond, etc. All with covers illustrated by Bob McGinnis. Besides the odd abused Playboy, Penthouse or Oui found in the woods, it was the McGinnis covers that locked a certain image of female beauty in my mind. Those images still kill me.

Besides the potboiler/pulp novels my father also read histories, biographies, scientific books, art books, and had subscriptions to piles of magazines, Time, Newsweek, Look, Life, Scientific American, National Geographic, the New Yorker, etc. We were never lacking for something to pick up and peruse. I was particularly drawn to my father's ever-growing collection of books on the Second World War. I ate those books up. John Toland's Rising Sun, Battle: The Story of the Bulge (I actually just got through reading this one again. Really enjoyed it), William Shirer's History of the Second World War, etc. Of course it was really the pictures that lured me in, but because of the pictures I read the books, material way over my head at the time. But I pushed my way through them.

My father also loved to introduce me to the old Pulps of his childhood, growing up in the Texas panhandle during the early days of the Great Depression. Each Christmas I could look forward to some new history of the Pulps. In them I was introduced to Doc Savage, The Shadow, G-8 and His Battle Aces, Dusty Ayres, Fu Manchu, etc. I loved the bold headlines, the crude type and the blunt drawings. And the covers! They blew my mind. I was enamored of everything about them. They were like comic books, but somehow they seemed more adult, more serious.

All this by way of introduction to my reading habits. I usually have several books going at once that I'm reading. I can be dead tired, but will still have to read. I find that I usually get so into a book that I wake up and spend hours reading.

I also listen to audio books while I work and drive. I have a 2 1/2 hour commute to school each week and once NPR crackles out of existence I turn to my iPod and my audio books. I joined Audible a couple of years ago and it's one of the great pleasures in my life. Each month I can download two new audio books for $20. What a steal.

When I work I generally choose books that I have already read, but that is slowly changing. I also have times where I cannot have anything playing while I'm working. If I'm writing, forget it — only silence will do. Same goes if I'm doing layouts for my sequential work, or sketches for something. Once I'm through with those aspects of storytelling or image development then I can put on music or books. Once I start working on a final piece of art I can zone out and live in the musical space or the world of the story. Many of the readers of the audio books are excellent, acting out the various voices of the characters so that you can truly "live" the story.

So, what am I reading now?

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe Series (Napoleonic Wars), and his Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles (Civil War) Have begun reading the whole Sharpe series. What I'm really enjoying, though, are the Audible Books readings of these. I love listening to audio books while I work. Generally I choose something I've already read. However the narrator of these books, Frederick Davidson, does such a superlative job that I look forward to each new book.

The Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles are about the Civil War and I'm having to sort of acclimate myself to that. I've never followed the Civil War at all, though it's interesting, to say the least. I feel that Cornwell is having to acclimate himself as well in the first novel. Though by the end I felt that he had gotten there and that the writing of the rest of this series will rise to the feeling of reality that he achieved in the Sharpe series.

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918: World War I and Its Violent Climax by Joseph Persico.

King Suckerman by George Pelecanos. Have barely begun reading this, but so far it's a good read. His dialogue, like Elmore Leonard, is spot on. Lots of fun!

The Great Influenza by John Barry. Just finished this one and found it an excellent read. Scary implications given the possibility of the bird flu in Asia spreading.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester. My grandfather used to read these and I would see them scattered about the house, so I thought I'd give them a try. They're a fun read and one can see where O'Brien is coming from. Long ago I read Forester's Sink the Bismark! and enjoyed it.

Night & Fear: a centenary collection of stories by Cornell Woolrich. Woolrich wrote Rear Window which was chosen by Alfred Hitchcock as the basis for his popular movie. Hitchcock used quite a bit of Woolrich's work in his wonderful Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series. Great suspenseful short story writer.

Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One. I'd never seen Fuller's film of this, but thought I'd give the book a chance. I ended up enjoying this read.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. Have barely begun this book. Eco is a big comics reader, apparently, and he wallows in it here and one can see his love for the medium. In Europe comics is seen as a true art form and it's nice to see such a powerful literary talent as Umberto Eco unabashedly put his love for the medium out there for all to see.

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger. An incredibly powerful memoir of the First World War.


Wow, lots of war books, heavy on the First World War. No surprise there as I'm constantly working on writing my epic WWI story that I'd like to do someday.

I'll update this list as the books change. I'd also be interested in hearing what other's are reading as well.