Improving My 'Cultural Literacy'

I love to read. A lot. I probably have enough books in my collection to stock a small library, even though I occasionally try to thin it out by giving some away or throwing out those that are falling apart.

History, travel, and nature are probably my favorite reading subjects. One area where I certainly have been weak though is fiction; since high school I had read very little other than Star Trek and some books I got when I was even younger.

In the past few years I have begun broadening my reading interests (how many accounts of the battle of Gettysburg of the sinking of the Titanic can one really read anyway?). Some of the books or subjects I have read in the past five years or so are 'Exodus' 'The Hunt For Red October,' various Star Wars stuff, 'The Accidental Mermaid' 'The Buccaneer of Nemaris' 'The Hobbit' and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and illustrated condensed versions of 'Moby Dick' and 'Captains Courageous' as well as the original 'Thomas the Tank Engine' stories. I also have the 'Complete Sherlock Holmes (I should start on that someday!), and I'm part way through 'Watership Down.'

All this I think has helped greatly improve my own writing skills, which I had pretty much neglected for many years.