My reading has downgraded so much over the years - when I was in secondary school I was getting through at least 2 books a week. Now I'm lucky if I read 2 new books a year. It's not that I don't enjoy reading anymore, it's just a book has to really scream "Read me!" now for me to pick it up, so this list is great because I could grab some ideas from it.
James Ellroy is an author I connect with like no other. I have his entire collection and I've read every book at least twice, and in some cases seven or eight times. Also, with the movie of "The Black Dahlia" coming out on Friday, now could be a good time to get into him. That said, Dahlia is one of the harder books to get into. I'd recommend "The Big Nowhere" as a good jumping off point. Ellroy's "White Jazz" and "The Cold Six Thousand" are both in my top five ever books. Initially told that "White Jazz" was too long to publish, Ellroy responded by removing virtually all of the verbs from the book, resulting in a thought-process prose that flies like a bullet.
If you haven't read "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, you really ought to, it's beautiful.
The one new book I've been fascinated by recently is "Underground London" by Stephen Smith. It's about what it says, but it's full of very cool observations and journeys and Smith has a very readable style. I'm a junkie for anything about London (I love that city soooooo much) but I think anybody interested in history would get something out of it.
I'm also making my way through the Lemony Snicket series, much more my style than the Harry Potter's. Just coming up to the Ersatz Elevator...
