Ah, vacation. The world is going to hell, but, alas, I'm in no position to react to the latest hypocritical Republican sex scandal, the second anniversary of Katrina or the senselessness and absurdity of the war.

Someone once told me that readers love columns that feature lists, whether lists of songs that mention Pittsburgh, or favorite CDs or longwinded book recommendations. It's certainly true in my case. These book list columns usually beat out earnest political diatribes in generating e-mail from across the spectrum. So, in lieu of actual work, I present a list of fiction and CDs I've picked up over the last year that I've enjoyed:

"Calculating God" by Robert J. Sawyer. This book is really a philosophical debate about the existence of God disguised as a science fiction novel. What happens when a six-legged alien emissary from the stars meets a skeptical Canadian scientist at his office with glad tidings that God exists? "Calculating God" is a funny and enlightening novel that Christopher Hitchens is sure to hate.

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. My colleague Dan Simpson raved about this book a few years ago and I've finally gotten around to reading it. I love Gaiman's comic book output and I'm beginning to enjoy his mass market fiction as well. This novel explores the question of what happens when the old, dead gods of pre-Christian Europe meet the "new gods" of American technology and commerce.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. This is easily the most depressing novel to ascend the bestseller list in years. Despite its overwhelming darkness, "The Road" forces you to read it in one or two sittings. It is about what happens after an unspecified apocalypse when a father and son walk a lonely road amid the ashes of civilization in search of food and shelter. They're wary of other people because those they've run into have a hankering for human flesh. This book will haunt you more than most.

"A Ship Made of Paper" by Scott Spencer. If you're looking for a novel with uncanny insight into the complexity and mixed motives of the human heart, you can't do better than this beautiful novel about an interracial affair and its disastrous consequences. I used to avoid "relationship novels" like the plague. Now I'm hooked.

"City of God " by E.L. Doctorow. I've just started this metaphysical detective story that takes place in New York involving an Episcopal priest and a female rabbi. (I'm sure readers are beginning to suspect that I only read books with a hint of God in the title.)

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. While everyone else is reading the latest Harry Potter installment, I read a century-old classic I never got around to reading in the first place. Now I'm gearing up to read its 13 sequels.

"New & Selected Poems 2006" by Stanley Moss. I don't know a lot about poetry, but I know I like this stuff. It makes my head explode (in a good way).

Currently on the night stand are "A Widow for One Year" by John Irving, "The Bourne Ultimatum" by Robert Ludlum, "The Ruins" by Scott Smith and "Different Seasons" by Stephen King. After picking up Stephen King for the first time since high school, I can understand why so many people still read him.

On the non-fiction front, I'm really "enjoying" John Kelly's "The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time" and Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose's collection of New Orleans disaster columns "1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina." "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas" by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher is one of the most fascinating reads of the year.

Recommended CDs:

"Don't Tell Columbus," Graham Parker; "Ga, Ga, Ga, Ga, Ga," Spoon; "Tied & True," The Detroit Cobras; "Unglamorous," Lori McKenna; "Armchair Apocrypha," Andrew Bird; "Build a Nation," Bad Brains; "Upfront and Down Low," Teddy Thompson; "Emotionalism," the Avett Brothers; "Cassadaga," Bright Eyes; "The Stage Names," Okkervil River; "South of Delia," Richard Shindell; "Desire," Pharoahe Monche; "Southern Manners," the Watson Twins; "New Moon," Elliott Smith; "Under the Blacklight," Rilo Kiley; "Eardrum," Talib Kweli; "Sky Blue Sky," Wilco; and the self-titled debut of The Good, the Bad and the Queen.

I haven't heard as many locally created CDs as I would like, but three stand out for me: "The World Says" by the stalwart Karl Hendricks Rock Band, "Before These Words Were Ever Spoken ..." from multifacted singer-songwriter Joy Ike, and the debut album by Ben Hardt, titled "Ben Hardt and His Symphony" and which does include violins, violas, cellos and a double bass.