Some read to learn, or enjoy history and historical places. For the most part I read to "get away" and I prefer contemporary locale and venues. Just something light and entertaining. And nothing all that memorable....so I can pick it up yet again and enjoy it all over.
I read to escape as well, Beth. When people ask me what I read, I usually respond, "Bestseller fictional trash!" There are certain authors who I've learned I do not like -- Danielle Steele is one of them and Stephen King is another -- but I do like many of the prolific writers (I was
sooo sad when Maeve Binchy died last year, as I adored her books and recently read the last one published after her death, "Whitethorn Woods"). I love what I call really good storytellers and she, IMHO, was one of the best. And I have a TERRIBLE memory for titles and authors, and just had to retreat to the bookshelf in our bedroom to get the name of Binchy's last book.
I also like Nelson DeMille a lot, too, and am currently re-reading one about post-war Vietnam called "Up Country." The first time I read it, years ago, I walked into the kitchen one morning and said something in Vietnamese and Brian's head nearly spun completely around! He said, "WHAT did you just say?" Brian has an amazing memory re languages and served in Vietnam many years ago and STILL remembers all the Vietnamese he learned. Now I'm doing it to him again with my re-read! Can you believe he still remembers all the Japanese he learned while watching "Shogun" and what it all means?! He speaks a little bit of tons of languages (he was in the shipping industry for over 30 years so dealt with tons of people all over the world), and he speaks TONS of Greek. I laugh sometime when he's on the phone with one of his Greek friends as he'll be speaking in Greek for so long until he finally reverts to English. Me? I have to write something down in a foreign language phonetically and put it on a post-it that sits in front of me for six weeks before I can remember it. And then if I don't use it all the time, in a month it's forgotten!!
Occasionally, I also read things that are not fictional. Brian recently traveled to a memorial service in Salem, Mass. (his darling cousin Colleen, 61, died from brain cancer) and stayed with his Aunt Mary and Uncle Al in Quincy. Uncle Al is a retired Boston police detective and of course, the Whitey Bulger case is currently being tried. He came home with a couple of books on Bulger and then some arrived from Amazon that Aunt Mary sent us. I read a couple and really enjoyed "The Brothers Bulger."
And I was gaga over the Harry Potter books, and got hooked about 10 pages into the first one. Brian loved them, too. We stlll laugh about the character names J.K. Rowling came up with --some of them were just so on point, like Malfoy!!
I also like true crime books and enjoy the ones by Ann Rule. I really enjoyed "Helter Skelter" many years ago, too...
Home
no not yet..this read is well worth the 30c I paid 
as I kept noticing how many messages I'd left when I looked at the right-hand column on the screen. I kept thinking about that "trashy broad" and hoped I didn't sound like her since I was posting so much! 