Meet me in the smelly section of Barnes & Noble. I'll be the clean-looking girl.

This was Sallie's idea and she wrote first. Dan's comments are in italics.

I’ve always classified myself as a person who really enjoys reading. When I was younger, I would consume books like candy. My mom couldn’t take me and my brother to the library frequently enough. We’d go several times a week and hit our limit on checkouts; and they weren’t picture books, either.

Dan: This was my mom’s idea of fun. Somehow she would convince me, my brothers and the children she babysat that the library was Disneyland. I did, however, enjoy reading and buying 10 cent books. So in a way, it was my own lower-middle class Missouri Disneyland.

I still classify myself as someone who likes to read, but I find it harder and harder to find books that I really like. Perhaps I’m not reading the ‘right’ authors or choosing books from the proper book club list, but I have a hard time coming up with a list of good books I’ve read recently.

Dan: More times than not I find mediocre books, but I have found several in the past year that really had me going. “Life of Pi,” the “Nightwatch” series, and anything by Nick Horby are all solid choices.

When I think of my top books, the majority of them are sci-fi or fantasy. Slap me if you will, but for some reason that’s just what I get into. Don’t get me wrong; I’ll read popular books that Oprah loves, like ‘The Secret Life of Bees,’ but I won’t be impressed by them or want to read them again, which is what is really important. I’ll think ‘Oh, I can see why that is popular’ and move on.

Dan: NERD!

I like things of the weird. My favorite authors, in no particular order, are: Garth Nix, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury. How did these writers become some of my favorites? Simple: I could read their books and stores hundreds of times and never get tired of them. There is something about the genres that they tackle that constantly intrigue me. For me, reading their books multiple times is just like watching a movie over and over. You notice things that you never did before. You see how the pieces fit together and become closer to the characters. You practically go into mourning once the book is finished and wonder what your characters are up to.

Dan: In all honesty, half the time I checked books out from the library, they were Star Wars novels by Timothy Zahn. When I did purchase books, they were usually one of R.L. Stein’s “Goosebumps” or comic books, which both open up some sort of world that just begs for the reader to be intrigued. I think it has something to do with humans wanting to temporarily escape their world. Other authors I enjoy in the fantasy and sci-fi genre are Garth Nix, Max Brooks, Richard Matheson, and S.D. Perry. (Although S.D. Perry is loved because she writes novels like B-movies: Horrible dialogue and plot development, but lots of violence and gore.)

Writers who surprise you and describe amazing scenes with such detail that you can’t help but be taken there in your mind — those are the authors that I continually come back to for more, and I have yet to find writers in any other genre but sci-fi or fantasy who do that for me. I want to know the details, but not be bogged down in the description to the point of forgetting what’s going on; I want my characters to exchange witty remarks and save the world, and I don’t think authors from other genres do the job as well.

Dan: More people than want to admit enjoy these genres, but they just enjoy them in other mediums. Movies like “Independence Day,” “Jurassic Park,” “Mars Attacks,” “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” pull in millions of viewers who are too cool to pick up the novel. More or less, this just tells me that people are too cool to be literate and if that’s the case, then my dream job is all but extinct.

Give me a suggestion, and I might change my mind. Otherwise, you can find me in the nerd section with the smelly pre-pubescent boys looking at anime at Barnes & Noble.

Dan: I love the nerd section. You’ll know it because overweight guys in silk dragon shirts are usually sitting on the floor in the aisle reading Manga, Sci-fi, or the latest trashy vampire novel. (For those of you who don’t know, most modern vampire novels are essentially cheesy romance novels with neck puncturing.) I’m usually hovering around this aisle, but not willing to dedicate to penetration.