The Short answer is yes. As part of my commitment to meet a particular quota this year, I've been reading a wide variety of books, many outside of what I might have read otherwise. The best part is probably that I'm taking things off my shelves to read because they're short or because I'm just reading more in general and need more material.

Hm, for instance, I'm nearly done with my first Japanese novel, though I've read a little bit about the history and culture of Japan. It takes place a generation after the Russo-Japanese war and the context is something completely new to me, which is great. I've even done a bit of elementary background research about the time following the Meiji Restoration and the subsequent Westernization of Japan. That's the best thing about picking up books that are somewhat outside your normal reading habits; that feeling of really expanding the brain and learning some new things. But then, that's just the joy of reading itself, I guess.

I've also recently read John Steinbeck for the first time and I'm quite taken with him.