MicShazam

I love reading essays about interesting topics and I want to read the thoughts of creative, smart people like Wallace and Sontag. The problem is that they sometimes operate at the limits of my intellectual capacity. Sometimes well over
Wallace's books on philosophy and math especially put my poor brain through the wringer. Progress is slow, but I'm patting myself on the back for having read well over a 100 pages of each... phew...
Still, despite this, Wallace and Sontag's essay collections are probably my favorite books so far.

Hitchen's can also be hard to read, but that's more because he's needlessly obtuse in his writing style, than due to his ideas being complex. I'm getting a bit tired of him, actually. Although his short book on cancer and mortality is very much worth reading.

I see a lot of novels, the titles and/or authors of which I recognize, but I have read absolutely none of them! I don't know what is wrong with me, but try as I might, novels just aren't clicking with me. I don't own a single novel anymore, shameful as that is.

I've got plenty of comic books though

Lisnaholic

^ I've done my share of reading stuff that was difficult to digest, but these days I don't have much patience with authors that are too challenging. But yes, I also like the essay form; it's a sober, under-the-radar form that never gets much attention. I have to say, though, that my favourite essay collections are by journalists, not academics.

^ I wouldn't worry about that MicShazam: you sound like my dad, who once justified not reading novels by saying, "Well, they're not real, are they?"
Today I probably read two non-fiction for each novel I read, although in the past novels absolutely dominated. My attitude used to be, "Non fiction = school text book, so I'm not reading it unless a teacher tells me to"!

^ Well, you deserve a break after all those difficult essayists.

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

MicShazam

Sontag is difficult, but Wallace is all over the place. Many of his essays, like the one titled "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (in which he goes on a cruise for Harper Magazine and writes about the experience), are light enough and downright funny. He can write both as an academic and as more of a journalist. He's also written several books of fiction, but I've read none of them yet.

I watch plenty of movies and my comics are fiction too, so I don't actually understand why I so strongly prefer non-fiction when it comes to books. So did your dad also not enjoy movies? ... Or comics?