Potter

Well a colleague gave me her copy of the new Harry Potter so that goes to the top of list, displacing China Mieville, Francine Prose's Reading like a Writer, King Leopold's Ghost, and the Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus. Despite the length and density of subject matter, the latter is a pleasant and easy read.

In any case due to the desire to avoid the mounting spoilers in the media and my eagerness to find out what happens, Potter wins. Gretchen at the Happiness Project points out an additional reason. There is something fun and exciting about participating in a mass cultural moment. This has gotten harder to do, as music, which once unified people, has splintered into multiple subcultures. So in a sense, the Potter books are the Beatles or the Rolling Stones of our generation.