A number of years ago, a prospective employer asked me what the last book I read was--I made the mistake of telling him I'd read a book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--I had been the leading candidate for the job, and suddenly was eliminated. Later, a friend who worked with the man told me that the interviewer had strong views on the subject.

After that, I always made sure that I had a non-controversial book, movie, and several innocuous small-talk subjects that I could fall back on when interviews moved into the "personal interests" area.

I never mention my musical tastes in non-music interviews--I let them find out when it's too late to do anything about it--