You Are Not a Stranger Here--Adam Haslett (recommend, except for one story)

Servants of the Map--Andrea Barret (highly recommend first and last stories, others mediocre)

Middlesex--Jeffrey Eugenides (highly recommend)

The Corrections--Jonathan Franzen (mediocre, except for the last forty pages)

The Bridegroom--Ha Jin (recommend)

The Known World--Edward Jones (highly recommend)

Sputnik Sweetheart--Haruki Murakami (I guess I recommend it, but I'm having trouble understanding the last few pages)

Waiting--Ha Jin (Recommend)

Gunslinger: The Dark Tower (Volume 1)--Stephen King (highly recommend)

Gunslinger: The Drawing of the Three (Volume II)--Stephen King (highly recommend)

Gunslinger: The Waste Lands (Volume III)--Stephen King (highly recommend)

Gunslinger: Wizard and Glass (Volume IV)--Stephen King (highly recommend, chinks in the armor are beginning to show: I wish one of the annoying characters would get killed)

Gunslinger: Wolves of the Calla (Volume V)--Stephen King (crap) 5/30/04: Now I wish two of the annoying characters would get killed. Revised 6/6/04: This is bad. I don't think I've read worse dialogue in my life, at times I cringe and find myself scanning forward ten pages at a time. King has lost the touch. I'm going to try and finish this, but I don't see much hope. Revised 6/10/04: Stopped reading. If some in the U.S. Military REALLY want to torture Iraqi combatants, they should tie them down and start reading this crap out loud.

Jesus, vol. 1--Yasuhiko Yoshikazu (highly recommend, but it is weird)

Memoirs of a Geisha--Arthur Golden (highly recommend)

Neuromancer--William Gibson (highly recommend)

Count Zero--William Gibson (highly recommend, but you better pay attention)

Idoru--William Gibson (recommend)

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood--Marjane Satrapi (highly recommend)

Persepolis: The Story of a Return--Marjane Satrapi (highly recommend)

The Four Pillars of Investing--William Bernstein (highly recommend--especially the chapter on rebalancing your portfolio)

The Piano Teacher--Elfriede Jelinek (perverse, insane crap)

Occidentalism--Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit (recommend)

Common Sense on Mutual Funds --John Bogle (highly recommend)

White Noise--Don DeLillo (slight recommendation)

Wild at Heart--Elderedge. Absolutely one of the worst books I have read. Heretical, myopic, pop-Christian sludge.

All Tomorrow's Parties--William Gibson (in process, still)

The Catholic Answer Book of Mary--Stravinskin (highly recommend)

Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment--Godawa (in process)

Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death, Yoel Hoffmann, ed. Some good, some bad.

On a journey, ill:

my dream goes wandering

over withered fields. (Basho's Death Poem)

Highly recommend.

The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa. Robert Hass, ed. As it says, essential. Includes prose writings and some of Buson's and Issa's art work.

With my father

I would look out at dawn

over green fields. (Issa's poem to his father)

Highly recommend.

The Code of the Samurai Daidoji Yuzan. (Highly recommend).

The Dancing Girl of Izu Kawabata (Highly recommend).

Spring Snow. Yukio Mishima. 1966.-beautifully written, the first of his tetralogy, leading up to his suicide in 1970. We start to see the beginning of the end of Mishima. Highly Recommend.

Runaway Horses. Yukio Mishima. 1968.-continuation of Spring Snow with characters from the 1st book and the reincarnation of Kiyoaki. Mishima fully integrates his political belief system. Highly Recommend.

Mishima: A Biography. 2000. John Nathan. A deep look into what caused Mishima to be the half nut that he was, all because of his parents, of course. Recommend.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami. Get it, read it.

The Sound of Waves. 1956. Yukio Mishima. One of the most beautifully written books by Mishima. No hari-kari or lover's suicides in this one. Highly Recommend.

Four Views on Hell: Literal, Metaphorical, Purgatorial, Conditional--Crockett, ed. Tedious, but recommend.