I don't know if you consider this actually reading or not, but I spent most of my day home sick napping and reading Rurouni Kenshin manga books. I read 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and started 18 which was where I switched to school work.
These six books carry the end of the kyoto arc. Other than a wonderful action adventure story with a great deal of comedy mixed in, it give a me a historical glimpse of the meiji era Japan with snapshot flash backs of the past. The manga series takes place after the fall of the Shogun or feudal military ruler. The Ishin shishi, patriots, fought to restore the emperor to his rightful throne after nearly 300 years of warlords.
This is historical fiction so other than historical facts, customes at the time, and certain minor characters, this is made up. However most of the characters are referenced back to actual people that lived.
Kenshin Himura served as a hitokiri, assassin, during the war and became known as hitokiri battosai. Now he is merely a wander who seeks to help the weak though refuses to kill ever again. So,Kenshin wanders into Tokyo (orginally Edo) to keep an eye on the government and that where the story starts. Oh, that's when a bunch of weird and interesting characters get mashed into one big happy (most of the time) family. This manga delves deeply into the soul of emotions that governs humanity. Kenshin himself is seeking atonment for the sins of his past, another character loses everything including his humanity only to fight to regain his soul and will to live.
Anyway, I was a great deal of fun. Hope you enjoyed the mini history lesson given to me from my reading. Sayonara!