Do dads have time to read for pleasure? (If you believe Laura Miller over at Salon, we don't because moms run the publishing world.)

If you do manage to find some time to read, what's on your bedstand, on your Kindle or iPad right now.

When and how do you find time to read?

Feel free to make recommendations for non-parenting related titles here (there are different threads for parenting and kids' books around here somewhere).

I hate to admit it but I read while I'm at work. I work overnights in a group home so there's a lot of downtime. The most recent books that I've been reading are the Worldwar & Colonization series by Harry Turtledove. It's a series of books basically about what if lizard aliens came to colonize Earth during WWII. Total crap I know, but I read the first one not knowing it was part one of a eight book series. Whatever, I've been into it. I'm a dork I guess. The next book I'd like to read is Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain.

Tough to find time but I've recently started to do a combo of a book (10 minutes before bed) and an audio book for my commute. Love it!

I also know what you mean about moms running the publishing world. I actually decided to start by reading the same books my wife and was pleasantly surprised.

I finished "The girl with the dragon tatoo" and continueing on with the series now.

Highly recommend the audio/ebook combo.

makes things go faster and saves me from afternoon drive DJ's.

I'm in something like book 10 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Note that each book is close to 1000 pages and I feel like I'm only halfway through. I started them a long time ago but gave up when I learned that despite being five books and about 3500 pages in, I still had six more books to read, all of them longer than any that I'd read thus far, and the plot was nowhere near being in a position to end. Then when he died a few years back, I decided that it was going to have a definite ending approaching. I picked up The Eye of the World and have been reading 50-200 pages most nights. In between and during waking hours, I scan through brewing books in search of knowledge about yeasts (wild and cultured), brewing styles and what I can do to the next round of recipes.

It took me three times to get through Anna Karenina, but nowhere near the effort it takes to get as far as I have in this Wheel of Time infinitology. Despite the last book being broken up into three volumes, I appreciate that the author has his reasons and that there are so many open plots approaching the end, a simple 500 page closer would be a total disappointment, even though I really am disappointed anyway.

I wish I could do some reading for fun, but I have more than enough reading to do for school. In the summer I try to read novels and such but usually get drawn back into research. Last summer I read a few classic proletarian novels: The Grapes of Wrath, The Jungle, News from Nowhere, etc. This summer I suspect I'll be looking through parenting & baby books to get a lay of the land philosophically. But I'm really feeling the need for some books that have nothing to do with school or parenting, some real beach reads. I'm looking at picking up The Whale by Phillip Hoare, Tinkers by Paul Harding, and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Looking forward to more suggestions.

I have found that reading time is at a real premium. Here has been my solution -- Audible + iPod + running. My subscription gets me one unabridged book per month. It turns out that I run about one book a month.

I really enjoyed the most recent book I "read" that way -- "Tin Roof Blowdown" by James Lee Burke. Though looking back at the Katrina disaster may be too much with an oil spill off the coast. I found this to be an intelligent and authentic procedural. Rich characters, gritty -- I found it more compelling than HBOs current series "Treme." Just enough pot boiler, suspension of disbelief stuff to get me to finish the last mile.

I've now wandered into the future with "The Windup Girl" -- a sci-fi post apocalyptical that is a distant cousin of "Battlestar Galactica" with its gene hacked semi-humans and scarcity of resources. A thorough imagining of a post-petroleum, post-global warming economy, but I'm struggling to really find a point of emotional attachment. Only about a third through it.

@halldur I am loading the Kindle with summer reading and Hoare's "The Whale" is already on there. Along with "That Old Cape Magic" -- see a theme? We vacation on Cape Cod.

@romburgundy I'm also enjoying the "Girl" series and am sure to buy "Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" when it comes out. You might also like Nordic Noir author Jo Nesbo.

I don't read much fiction, generally. In the past few weeks I've started and then stopped reading the newest Margaret Atwood book and a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories, but I'm going to come back to them later. Since I'm a big history buff, particularly the prehistory of the Colorado Plateau, where I live, I'm currently plowing through [i]House of Rain[i] by Craig Childs, trying to figure out some good Anasazi ruins to investigate this summer. I'm also slowly making my way through Carnage and Culture by Victor Davis Hanson, which is a study of some landmark battles in the history of Western Civilization becoming dominant in warfare.

I just picked up signed copies of Hoare's The Whale, as well as G. Xavier Robillard's Captain Freedom at our local bookstore. A nice score.

For any Chuck Palahniuk fans: He was just in town kicking off his book tour and signed a slew of books for our local bookseller. It looks like they've got at least 2 signed copies of virtually everything he's written, including his new novel, Tell All. If you want any, just get in contact with RiverRun Bookstore (the actual bookstore not the online version), and I'm sure they'll send you a copy. They're selling them at regular price.

To recap:

I've now wandered into the future with "The Windup Girl" -- a sci-fi post apocalyptical that is a distant cousin of "Battlestar Galactica" with its gene hacked semi-humans and scarcity of resources. A thorough imagining of a post-petroleum, post-global warming economy, but I'm struggling to really find a point of emotional attachment. Only about a third through it.

So I finished this audio book, and I would have to say that I recommend it to sci-fi fans and to fans of steam-punk without reservation. It's pretty cerebral stuff to run to however. Such a thorough imagining of an economy rising from the ashes of environmental disaster and global meltdown, I've never seen. But those hoping for action packed, laser beam blasting suspense should look elsewhere. "The Windup Girl" certainly has those elements, but this is a human (augmented and otherwise) drama.

I give it three and a half pacifiers.

I just started "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. He is the dude that wrote "A Walk In The Woods" among others. While this one is not as gut busting funny as his other works. it's not meant to be. It is essentially scientific history for the laymen and is very enjoyable as well as informative. Did you know the great astronomer Hubble was douchebag?

"The Ascent of Money" has been a good read for me. A little slow going in the beginning, but turned into a page turner about halfway through.

Author exhibits all the typical professorial biases, but they are easily filtered out if you can see them coming.

Very relevant reading for today's economic and political climate.

This week I finished "The Whiskey Rebels" by David Liss and I wonder if I'm overhyping it to say that I'm not sure I've enjoyed a book more in the last five years.

"The Whiskey Rebels" is a historical novel, set in the 1790s, that has authenticity and the ring of long hours of research, but it's a rip roaring yarn as well. When I tell you that it concerns intrigue swirling around Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies and the establishment of the Bank of the United States, you may be tempted to remember dozing off in Civics class. Don't.

The novel features two narrative lines in an offset chronologies, a structure that is one of the novels many pleasures. Joan Maycott ventures to the wilds of Western Pennsylvania, suffers hardship but rises to revenge, while disgraced spy Ethan Saunders tries to sober up long enough to understand the forces arrayed against him.

Saunders is the sort of scoundrel that, were he alive today, might be an employee at a fatherhood website. His formal speech made me think of Alastair Cook's narration of the Stanley Kubrick classic "Barry Lyndon." I busted out laughing at him at several, rather embarrassing, moments, as I listened to this book on my iPod while running around Lady Bird Lake.

There are reversals, familiar historical figures, beautiful ladies, encrypted messages, scalawags, gentlemen and blazing pistols galore. I loved this book so much I started "cheating" and listening to it even when I wasn't running.

Highly, highly recommended.

When I'm home I tend to read anthologies of short stories as it seems that's all I've got time for. Plus I don't get disappointed when I'm interrupted.

Here are some favorites off my book shelf

Baseball - A Literary Anthology
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told -- edited by Jeff Silverman
Conversations w/Hunter S. Thompson
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

When I travel (about every 8-10 weeks) I'll indulge in novels -- usually sci-fi for the flights.

I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy while traveling. Big Mistake! By the time the flight was done, I was in tears and all I wanted to do more than anything was hug my 6 year old. It was a long week.

@krellpw

When "The Road" came out there was lots of discussion in this office whether or not parents should read this book.

Troy and I felt seared by this book. I still haven't brought myself to watch this movie, even though it's on my Netflix list.

I'm pretty sure I wrote some kind of review for the site, but I can't find it.

Have you heard of the anthology called "Stories" edited by Neil Gaiman? It's a variety of "genre" writing and it's supposed to be quite good. It's on my beach reading list.

Speaking of that, I should publish my sumer reading list.

I just posted my summer reading list. You can drop a comment or add your summer reading list ideas here.

@Daddy Clay -- Know what you mean about "The Road." It was incredibly powerful and moving, but I haven't and don't think I could see the movie either. For me, part of the power and personal impact of reading it was imagining myself and my own six year old on that road. It made the read so much more impactful. Plus, I just don't think emotionally I could watch that story actually play out in front of me.

I have not read Gaiman's "Stories." I did read another of his anthologies "Fragile Things." I enjoyed that a lot. I've also read some of his other works, "American Gods," and " Anansi Boys." Both very entertaining reads.

I personally don't have a premeditated Summer reading list. My reading habits are far more impulsive. It's simply a question of what catches my eye as I browse the stacks either at my local bookstore or library. I look forward to checking out your list though.

One of the many joys of having slightly older kids is that when we go on vacation, when I'm not on the lookout for Great White Sharks, I actually have some time to read.

So I've updated my summer reading list with mini reviews of what I read over vacation here.

I'm done listening to Howard Blum's "American Lightning: Anarchy and Murder in Ragtime America." I didn't finish it. There's still about a half hour of the unabridged recording left. But I'm done.

I'm not sure why I haven't enjoyed this tale more, the professional reviews are very positive. It may be that I've always listened to fiction when I run, and this is history. It may just be that the reader rubbed me the wrong way. But I don't think so. The reader has a pleasant voice and wasn't intrusive. And the story of the bombing of the LA times in the early 20th Century is so packed with celebrities of history, and plot twists, that the spy novels and detective procedurals that usually fill my iPod have nothing on this book.

I think what bugged me was the level of inflated rhetoric. The author seemed to tirelessly pump the action up, so that he very consciously could compete with fiction. The bombast was finally overwhelming to me. Every event in the book was earth shattering, or the invention of a new era. Until I got earth-shatter fatigue.

And then there was the matter of the story of D.W. Griffith. Maybe he gets tied into the rest of the narrative in the last 30 minutes, but I'm too worn out to find out why.

If you are interested in this era of American history, this might be fun, but I am literally running back into the arms of Dave Robicheaux and the rest of the fictional detectives.

hey guys, I recommend GoodReads.com, feel free to look me up there (Chris Feyrer) and Owen Edgerton is there too-- along with reviews of his book.

Hey Chris, thanks for the good reads tip. I spent some tie just yesterday, trying to find a social reading platform somewhere. I was looking at Scribd, but I'll be damned if I could figure out what that was. A social cloud for publishing docs and decks? How is that different from blogging?

I'll try GoodReads and hope it works out better.

Lately, I have tried to squeeze in half an hour during her naps to read. I am almost finished Reading Huckleberry Finn and will start reading the Federalist Papers once I am done.

A kindle seems nice, but I am still addicted to old fashioned hardcovers and paper. Kindles are not as permanent as a good book.

Dan

I'm about three quarters of the way through the audio book version of "The Road" honestly I'm afraid of finishing it.
Like he says in the book "what goes in your head never comes out" in any case I'm finding myself generally depressed by what i'm reading but cant help but want to know what happens.

Any advice from those who read it should i leave that one alone unfinished and move on to greener pastures?

Hey romburgundy re: The Road. I read that while traveling cross country from my kids a few months ago. Was definitely poor planning on my part. Without giving up any spoilers, I'd suggest that you have to ask yourself, "are you a glass half empty, or glass half full type of person?" If you're a pessimist, I'd suggest moving on. If you're an optimist, then read on.

My wife says i'm a glass half empty guy but I say that I'm a time for another beer guy. She's probably right though! I think I might put that book away.

Thank you

rom--

We had a huge debate at DL when that book came out. Troy and I both read it and were devastated by it. It's gone on to be a touch point for both of us and a frequent reference. It's one of those pieces of literature that shatters you, and stays with you, but also is a point of commonality and discussion.

I say, press on down the road.