NIGHTTABLE READING

Who reads what between the sheets

Billy Martin (baseball manager): Embattled Confederacy, edited by William C. Davis (Doubleday). "It brings to life the Civil War, which, after baseball, is one of my most passionate interests.''

Edna O'Brien (writer): The Counterlife, by Philip Roth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). "It's deeper and more searching than anything he has written before.''

James Levine (conductor): Strong Opinions, by Vladimir Nabokov (McGraw-Hill). "As much as / love Nabokov's fiction, I return often to this collection of clearheaded wisdom and devastating wit.''