These are good books I read:

Samuel Johnson is Indignant by Lydia Davis
Self-Imitation of Myself by Gordon Lish
Vacation by Deb Olin Unferth
My Cousin My Gastroenterologist by Mark Leyner
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Psychic Awareness
Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner
Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn

I would recommend any of them to most everybody and you can borrow one if you're into sharing. Collectives share things.

I am drinking decaf green tea right now and I am trying to start "Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust. I am ten years late in reading most things, but a really good one I read over break was "This Boy's Life" by Tobias Wolff. I also liked "Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin (thanks Chloe!) and "Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust" by Nathanael West (thanks Elliott!) and "Madeline is Sleeping" by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum...which actually, I did not finish but I still thought it was really interesting. I also reread a bunch of Raymond Carver stories because my friend Sophia wanted to have a book club but then we never talked about the stories. I also tried to read "Twilight" by that Morman woman but did not get very far.

I read these books on da beach:

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Break It Down by Lydia Davis
Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard
The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams

None of these books are good beach reads. They range from mildly to extremely depressing. The Road is both depressing and boring. I may the only person in America who disliked that book. Snoozer. Whatever.

I did too much not associated with relaxing and reading over break, but I got through most of Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson. Still reading Honeybee by Naomi Shihab Nye. Read: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Reading: The Best American Essays of 2008.