Read Any Good Books Lately?

It's Tuesday! Why aren't you in a book store?

A couple of responses/reminders for you before I get started today:

1.) A few of you mentioned in the comments section of yesterday's post that it's possible for a book to be profitable without its author earning out his/her advance. This is absolutely true. Depending on your advance, royalty structure, and the cost(s) of printing and distributing your book (cost of jacket, cost of (re)design, cost of marketing campaign in-house, &c), you may fail to earn out your advance and the house may still turn a profit on your book. (The reverse can also be true.)

2.) Don't forget to enter Laura's most recent contest! Disease(d) superheroes & nemeses, assemble!

Now, since I work in sales, I have to read a lot. (That is, ARCs and galleys of our titles.) Most people attracted to the industry are already pretty heavy readers, so between work and pleasure, I probably read about 200 books a year (possibly more if I'm reading more graphic novels or poetry than average). Below I'll list some of the books I've (re)read this summer, and in the comments, please feel free to list your top five/ten/twenty/or more! novels of the summer/year so far. You'll see what I'm reading, I'll see what you're reading, everybody learns something.

So! Since early June I've read (not including the ARCs/galleys for work):

• The Odyssey (Fitzgerald translation), Homer
• Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut
• The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
• Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut
• Best American Short Stories 2008, Salman Rushdie, ed.
• Watchmen, Alan Moore
• Embryoyo, Dean Young
• That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
• Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli
• The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
• American Lion, Jon Meacham
• Citizen Of, Christian Hawkey
• Complete Works of William Shakespeare (a handful of plays—not the whole thing!), William Shakespeare
• Batman: The Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb
• The City & the City, China Miéville
• Origins of the Specious, Patricia O'Conner & Stewart Kellerman
• Natural History, Dan Chiasson
• L'Être et le Néant: Essai D'Ontologie Phénoménologique, Jean-Paul Sartre