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All of the above. Plus, sometimes travel starts me on a train of reading. I'm the reverse of those conscientious people who read up on a country before going there. Once I've seen a place and have pictures in my mind, then I like to read about it. A recent example is Greece. Now I'm reading...

I agree with the above. Orwell even had a sense of humor, at times. Try Keep the Aspidistra Flying or Coming up for Air. Orwell was an interesting character with a gift for complicating his personal life. He understood the role of language in influencing our thoughts and attitudes, especially...

John LeCarre and I go back a long way. I started with his The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (cold war suspense) and have read practically everything he has written as it has come out. I especially enjoyed A Perfect Spy and anything with George Smiley. All of his plots are complex - layered - and...

William James says that belief is the basis for action. Or, following back on that, by how you act we know what you believe. I suppose I could believe without knowing, and I could not refuse to believe what I do know. What the earlier responder could not accept is that I can't use knowledge...

I recently read Wife to Mister Milton and have commented on it in a blog entry. See the Silver Threads blog here. Robert Graves portrays Milton as arrogant and self righteous. Maybe Lucifer comes off so well in the poem because he is the one to stand up against some of Milton's approved...

Look out for children! Before they learn to read for themselves, they want the same stories read to them over and over and over again. Grandchildren are just as bad. I spent a summer week on Cape Cod with a 3-year-old, reading Are You My Mother?. I got her down to three times a day, once after...

A book about Custer is Son of the Morning Star by McConnell (not entirely sure of his name). It gives the background for the conflict, as well as a portrait of Custer himself.

In Amazon, check the "used" books, some of which are really new. Also Half.com eBay auctions and eBay stores

Are you looking for philosophy or self help? For beginners in philosophy, start with Plato or John Stuart Mill or William James. For self help, I'll let somebody else recommend. Philosophy will probably not help you with life's obstacles except by giving you more ways to think about them...

Macaroni and cheese for life. I like it. (My grandfather once won a case of walnettos in a similar contest). Maybe you could do more with the cheese aspect. The kids could color some of the cheese green and sell it as moon rocks.

It's not a biography, but Tolstoy does a job on Napoleon in War and Peace. It gives you the Russian view of this "great" general. Also, sometimes when I am interested in an individual, I start with Wikipedia. It's a start on what's out there. Also, you might find a Napoleon list in Amazon...

I read The Naked and the Dead years ago and remember as a powerful book. It was also made in to a movie. It would be interesting to go back to it now and see how well it holds up. Some years later I was required to read The Deer Park for a course. I thought it was bombastic and macho macho.

So you want VHS tape or DVD? Now that the market is for DVD, you can often buy older VHS films inexpensively through eBay or Amazon. Occasionally the condition is less than perfect, but usually they are pretty good. So far as researching what films are out there, both the Amazon and the Netflix...

Did you change your avatar? You're looking good!

This holiday sounds like a cousin of Halloween. Are they good spirits or bad spirits?

Also sometimes Wikipedia, especially if I want to know more about the author and other things he/she wrote.

I thought Children of the Arbat was outstanding as a picture of a time and place. I was particularly impressed by the writer's use of Stalin as a character in the story. Usually I think real historical figures seem very artificial in a novel, but it worked in this one. For example, the...

Thank you for reminding what a good time I had with this book many years ago. Not that I want to read it again, of course, but once was fun. As I recall the act of his conception was interrupted by his mother asking his father whether he had remembered to wind the great clock. In some way...

"Meet Mrs. Bundren," he says. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Have you tried reading the book yet?