What T. Coraghessan Boyle is reading

''I am reading William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Why am I reading this? I must have something in mind to write about in the future. And I just came back from a few weeks in the mountains, so I needed something fat. I'm also reading Christina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. I've been reading a lot of books about Mexico for a book I'm writing — Tortilla Curtain, about the issue of borders, walls, and 5.5 billion people on the planet — Coyotes, by Ted Conover, about working with illegal Mexican aliens, and Oscar Lewis' book The Children of Sanchez. When I was a youth, I read every book right till the end. Now I realize I don't have to clean my plate all the time.''