That’s just a provocative way of introducing a few summer reading suggestions for the open-minded (but not so open that your brains fall out, we often hear these days). As I’m constantly reading books, and not just blogs, I feel it’s somehow my duty to share these with the outside world. What is more exciting than reading a good book? It’s not unlike falling in love, though you don’t have to fret over fidelity. Read as many as you like; they will never get jealous.

Here are ten books chosen, in no particular fashion, from books I have recently read or dipped into with more than a passing glance.

1. Occidentalism by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit

2. 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists ed. Russell Blackford & Udo Schuklenk

3. Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson

4. Past Continuous by Yaakov Shabtai

5. Voodoo Histories: How Conspiracy Theory Has Shaped Modern History by David Aaronovitch

6. Exuberant Skepticism by Paul Kurtz

7. Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh

8. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

9. Liberty in the Age of Terror by A.C. Grayling

10. The Flight of the Intellectuals by Paul Berman

Granted, there’s not much fiction on this list. I realize most people instinctively reach for a novel when summer hits. So I’ll add an appendix of some fiction I recommend, recently read or not, from among my perennial favorites.

1. American Pastoral by Philip Roth

2. The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil

3. Barney’s Version by Mordechai Richler

4. Fanny Hill by John Cleland

5. Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem Aleichem

Happy reading!