Again, my list above is waaaaaay too short to include all my favorites. And I have a bathtub book, a bedroom book, a book in the car, one at work for lunch breaks (when I was working for someone else), and a couple extras going (poetry and something too heavy for reading straight through) at any given time. Not to mention trade pubs and other magazines.

I've never actually managed to finish reading my favorite book of all time -- Lawrence Stern's Tristram Shandy. I get so wrapped up in the writing and the way words are strung together that I never seem to get past the first hundred pages. (The "hobby horse" monologue!) Then I have to start over the next time I pick it up and the same thing happens.

I've been trying to read it for over thirty years (and it's been next to my bed the whole while!).

Bat Goddess