I read a lot of sex books, but when I want to depornosaturate my brain, I read a lot of non-sex books. Though I’ll admit that for a book to be exciting to me, there needs to be some sort of sexual, criminal or horror component; a book without these things is like food without salt. Sure, it keeps your blood pressure down, but… here are a few favorites I read (or re-read) in 2005:

The Crimson Petal and the White (read it twice) and Under The Skin by Michael Faber * Stormy Weather (3rd reading) and Strip Tease (2nd reading) by Carl Hiaasen * Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers by Baden + Roach * The Da Vinci Code and Deception Point by Dan Brown * Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides * What the Corpse Revealed: Murder and the Science of Forensic Detection by Hugh Miller * Dark Ladies by Fritz Lieber * Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner by Michael Baden * Cat Owner’s Manual by Brunner, Stall, Kepple, Buffum * Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2nd reading) by Jon Krakauer * Slammerkin (2 readings) by Emma Donoghue * The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman * Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (2nd reading) * JG Ballard: Quotes (endlessly thought-provoking) by Vale + Ryan * The Field Guide to Tools by John Kelsey * The Fig Eater by Jody Shields * Carter Beats the Devil by Glen Gold * Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy * The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler * I also re-read all my still-awesome Sin City comics (which I have in original form, not this fancy box set!)

Image: must-see Film Rotations Sin City Comparisons