What Are You Reading Now

I have books on my brain. Currently I'm trying for the third time to read Stephan Baxter's Emperor. Its not been easy going for me. The langauge is a bit dry, but I'm determined to make it through the 300-ish pages of this book.

I openly admit to preferring light reading. I like my Harlequin romances. I like books by Debbie Macomber, Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich, but I also like to read things every now and then that challenge me.

I think the last book I read like that was The Lovely Bones. That book, just did nothing for me too, but I finished it. It took awhile. I don't understand what the huge hype was surrounding it. It wasn't a great afterlife story. In fact everything about the book was rather depressing. I prefered The Shack and even that book left me feeling a bit meh by the time I turned the last page.

Now don't get me wrong, books don't need to always have happy endings or always be happy, but I generally don't like to be depressed when I'm reading. That's not why I read. I read for escape and for entertainment, ocassionally I read to learn something.

So what are you reading right now? What are some of the toughest books you've managed to get through?