I'm currently reading "The Cleft" by Doris Lessing. Not her best book, but it's still pretty good.

As for recommendations...the first thing that came to mind was "Waiting For The Barbarians" by J.M. Coetzee. An amazing book.

I'm currently reading "The Fall of the Roman Empire" by Peter Heather, recommended to me by my brother / fellow sifter Almanildo. It proposes a new solution to the mystery of the death of the Roman Empire, different from the prevailing notion of a decadent elite gone soft. Heather writes very engaging for a historian, and the book is propped full of exciting anecdotes from the time period in question.

There are a lot of books I would like to recommend, but I've noticed that my reading tastes are very similar to a lot of other sifters (Who would have thought?), so they will probably get recommended anyway. So as not to clutter this comment with too much info, I will only recommend two norwegian books, because I think most sifters haven't heard of them. If you are going to read only one book by a norwegian author, read this one:

"Mengele Zoo" by Gert Nygårdshaug. This book takes on heavy subjects like environmentalism, north-south conflict, imperialism and terrorism, but in an extremely page-turning and action-packed way. And you can not help but fall in love with the main protagonist from the moment you meet him. When you are finished reading it, you will be unsure whether you have become a better or worse human being for doing so.

"Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson has a radically different mood. It is a mellow story about a father/son-relationship, love and betrayal. It starts out as almost a non-story, but gradually reveals layer upon layer of intrigue. Petterson has often been compared to another great norwegian author, Knut Hamsun, for the way he uses the norwegian landscape to describe the psychology of his characters, in this case the heavy fir forests on the Norway-Sweden border. It also has the best closing sentence I have ever read in a book.

Oh, and anything by Kurt Vonnegut jr.

I'm currently reading "Freedom Evolves" by Daniel C. Dennett, which is quite interesting but a bit of a challenging read.

The book that I'll never forget, that changed my view of nature and science forever would have to be The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. I recommend it to absolutely everyone. Up until I read that book, I thought I had this evolution business pretty much right, but TSG explained it for real, and the stunning simplicity and elegance of the concept struck me for the first time in full force.

Prior to reading it, I read a quote by the late, great Douglas Adams saying something very similar to what I just said, and I thought "Huh? didn't Douglas Adams know ANYTHING about evolution before reading Dawkins?" and I thought that reading that book would not reveal anything new to me, but boy was I wrong. Turns out nearly everything I thought I knew about evolution was either wrong, inaccurate or inadequate.

I'm still reading American Sphinx when I have time, which hasn't been too often these past couple of weeks. Next I'm reading Watchmen and Philosophy which should be a fun read. After that, I've never read Thomas Paine's Rights of Man and Common Sense, so those will be next most likely.

I think rasch and I have the same taste in literature.

At the moment I am reading a book called "Brodeck" by Phillipe Claudel, the writer/director of "I've loved you so long." Its about this stranger who arrives in this town after a holocaust-like event, and starts drawing pictures of the villagers. They don't like the way he draws them, so they butcher him. That's where the book starts. Pretty interesting read so far.

I want to read a book that was very recently apparently translated into english. The book is "desert" by the french-Mauritanian recent nobel-prize winner JMG Le Clezio. Supposed to be fucking brilliant book.

messed up amazon invocation

Aha, so you're "readers", eh? What'cha reading for?

currently an oldschool classic book, Tom Wolfe's 1987 novel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonfire_of_the_Vanities

all my friends are going to be strangers - larry mcmurtry
beasts of no nation - uzadinma eweala (spelling is wrong)

currently im on an oscar wilde spreeeeeee

The Little Prince.

Listening to 'Salem's Lot on audiobook when I exercise, but am reading textbooks from school.

If you want a good read, track down a copy of Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F.Saint. Good read and not like the Chevy Chase movie.

Will be doing Jeffrey Archer's Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less next.

I'm reading the Diamond Age currently, but I can't really seem to crack it open like I did Snow Crash.

I love Stranger in a Strange land

"This Day All Gods Die" - Stephen R. Donaldson (Last of the Gap series)
"Enchantment" - Orson Scott Card
"Stars Like Dust" - Isaac Asimov

All fantastic so far.

Awaiting:
"Against All Things Ending" - Stephen R. Donaldson (2nd to last in "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever")
"Green" - Ted Dekker

The two books I Amazoned are recommendations (Return of Depression Economics, and Starship Troopers). If you like Heinlein, I'd hit Starship Troopers after you're done with Stranger in a Strange Land, because you'll be somewhat shocked that both are from the same author. I read a lot of other books by him, but I think those two are the best (and most well-known). The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is probably the only other one I'd consider a "must read" from him. If you're not sick of him after that, there are a handful of others, but I eventually got tired of how many Jubal Harshaw-type characters he uses.

Return of Depression Economics is actually the last book I finished (and would recommend to anyone), and right now I'm kinda-sorta picking at Taking on the System by Markos Moulitsas, which I would not recommend to people who aren't both liberal and into electoral politics.

I also found that copy of Woken Furies I mentioned the last time we had a thread about books, and I may read that after I'm done with 'System.