Man, I wish my dad was a reader. He's a musician (a drummer to be specific) and so you might say he has the spark of an artist (though I don't think he ever really cultivated it beyond being a phenomenal drummer -- which of course is perfectly fine). He works as a carpenter, and genuinely possesses one of the most amazing "common sense" minds that I've ever encountered, despite the fact that he's incredibly uneducated and not worldly at all. He can build the most beautiful piece of simple architecture you've ever seen (a bar in someone's basement, for example), fix virtually any household problem imaginable (he's mainly a jack-of-all-trades advanced-handyman these days), and despite all his ignorance, every once in a while he comes out with this crazily profound viewpoint on a complex problem that makes it extremely simple. Then he ruins it by turning around and making a racist black person joke.
I think we might need to make a Dad Thread.
Sooooo back on topic, Asimov is one of my top five "Authors I Should Have Read Years Ago and Still Haven't". Part of it is that I have this weird thing with sci-fi. It's like, I never want to read it, but then once I finally force myself to do so, I actually enjoy it. The other part is that I tend to want to read fiction that I think will help me with my own writing. Of course, this is a bit silly, since if I'm writing fantasy, and only reading fantasy, then I'm purposely limiting myself. I realize it's silly but I know I need to break out of it. I see myself going on a legit sci-fi kick in the next few months.