I just looked at my 'Books read' in June and there are hardly any. I've been mainly reading odd poems and bits and pieces, but I haven't sat and read many actual books, cover to cover. There's Red Mars on audio of course, which I started in May.
fjm links to this excellent Alison Bechdel cartoon on 'Compulsory Reading'. It's quite long, covering a lot of different issues, like an essay on how we choose what books to read, at different stages in life.I think my level of novel-reading is moderate at best, and I'm not sure I'll ever get round to War and Peace or modern must-reads like The Corrections or White Teeth or Libra... It's just a mountain. And I identify with Alison Bechdel there, when people say you ought to read something, sometimes it makes you feel excluded and resistant. Which is strange, in itself.
ETA
brisingamen links to this annoying post by Megan McCardle about how to persuade women to read SFThose of you who pitch science fiction to wives and girlfriends who do not enjoy it ... talk about it as a fairytale--only a fairy tale with science instead of magic.
Yes, we don't want to tax the ladies' minds too much do we, or their brains might overheat in all sorts of horrid ways.