So, have you read any good books lately?

When it comes to awkward conversations and trying to fill in time, the title of this column often seems to be part of the banter.

Or at least it is for some of us.
It is a relatively safe question. Not too many people will get up in arms over books. For the most part, we just swap opinions on fictional pieces and best sellers that everyone seems to read. After all, the latest James Patterson novel isn't likely to start an argument.

Of course, that's not true of all books.
I once gave a friend "The Gospel According to the Son" by Norman Mailer. Since my friend is a devout Christian, the book went over like a lead balloon.

I didn't care for the book all that much myself, but I thought it'd be a fun gag to play on my friend. It wasn't that funny.

Maybe it would help me some if I told him that I'm now reading "Left Behind" by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

Of course, I'm also in the middle of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig. I wonder if the two cancel out each other.

When it comes to reading, I'm a weird duck. That's why I can read "Left Behind" and "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown and enjoy them both without suffering some sort of religious whiplash.

I've always known this, but it sort of crystallized for me a few days ago when my father happened to be with me when I picked up a couple of novels to read. He asked me about them, and I got caught up on just how eclectic my reading selections tend to be.

The books were by David Baldacci and Robert B. Parker. As you may know, Baldacci's Camel Club series is based on conspiracy theories and government intrigue, while Parker writes hard-boiled detective novels.

To recap: I've got a book on the Rapture, a book on philosophy (though not Zen, despite the title) and two pieces of fiction - one involving social outcasts thwarting political conspiracies and one involving a wisecracking Boston private investigator.

Someone once asked me how I decide what to read. At the time, I was reading "The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn" by Joseph M. Marshall III. It's a history of the Lakota people.

To this day, I can't remember how I came across the book. I also can't adequately explain why I read it. It just sounded interesting.

I come to books in so many different ways, so I sometimes wonder how other readers come by their books. For me, I may read something at the suggestion of a friend, because it's from an author I've liked before, because it's in a series I've enjoyed or just because the flap sounded interesting.

I swear the only reason I read "Party Till You Die" by David Charnee was because the first line in the book was "First, I pack the machetes."

Right now, my reading list includes the last three of the "Odd Thomas" series by Dean Koontz, some Erik Larson stuff, how ever many of the "Left Behind" series I decide to get through, at least four books on Abraham Lincoln, whatever Lincoln Rhyme novels by Jeffrey Deaver that I haven't read, a lot of Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell and "Outliers" by Malcolm Galdwell.

Maybe my reading patterns make me one of those.

I'll let you know after I've read the book.