I honestly thought this was about what books we all have available for guests to read, which would have been an interesting question to pose. (Not that your question isn't interesting, but...well, you know what I mean.)
Lately, we like to time travel when we read, so we're big on historial fiction in this house. Virtually anything by David Liss, especially his novels that feature Ben Weaver, the charming yet flawed hero he introduced in "A Conspiracy of Paper," which by the way describes the birth of the stock market in the coffee houses of 18th century London. Michel Faber's wonderful "Crimson Petal and the White" is another favorite. I'm currently reading Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels," which hews closely to U.S. Civil War history but it's a novel -- and a terrific one -- nonetheless. We became hooked on Erik Larson, whose tremendous non-fiction works read like novels, when he impressed us mightily with "Devil in the White City," which traces the separate but related stories of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and Dr. H.H. Holmes, often thought to be America's first serial killer. Speaking of serial killers, next up is "The Midnight Assassin," a history of a grotesquely violent series of still-unsolved murders in Austin, Texas back in 1884-85. The papers called the perpetrator "The Servant Girl Annihilator" for his habit of dispatching maids and housekeepers. One theory is that after the killer fled Austin, he eventually landed in London and continued his grisly pursuits there, on the streets of Whitechapel.
Our reading material for guests trends toward lighter fare, as you might imagine. In addition to some local guide books and a selection of magazines, we've got a book of short stories, a book of fun ghost stories, some lit classics that people can start while staying with us and find easily (and cheaply) when they return home, an interesting compendium called "Obsolete" (it's an encyclopedia of things that once were common but now are rare, like mix tapes, getting lost, looking old, camera film, etc.), a photo book of amazing animal portraits, and a couple of old pulp fiction paperbacks from the '50s which are enormous fun.
We don't have a TV in the casita, so we make sure there's plenty to read.
Fun thread!