# Another "whatcha reading?" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918 "2003-09-26T05:28:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nefertari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@nefertari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nefertari)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/61 "2003-09-30T10:58:46Z")
FallenAngel, the Fagles translation is quite good - nice to read and keeps some rhyming and flow. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/62 "2003-09-30T12:08:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WordMan \* > \*\ ***Grim** - have you read _Disgrace_ by J.M. Coetzee? It won the Booker - best book I have read in a decade. Brilliantly written, uses a man’s life and the troubles he runs into to comment on race relations in South Africa. \*\* It has been on my “I-ought-to-read-that-sometime” list for a while, as I have heard very good things about it… One day 🙂 Grim ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/63 "2003-09-30T12:27:25Z")
Just finished _The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things_ by Hannah Holmes. (I’m on a non-fiction kick right now.) An interesting book; I read bits of it aloud to my six year old and now he doesn’t want to lay on the carpet. Full of amazing stuff and potentially disturbing; fortunately, I don’t remember this sort of thing long.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baggins111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@Baggins111](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baggins111)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/64 "2003-09-30T12:31:31Z")
Bedroom - \*\*So Long and Thanks for All the Fish \*\* - Douglas Adams Living room - **The Oddyssey** - Homer (you’re not alone **FallenAngel**!) But I’ve kind of fallen off on that one… Bathroom - **The Tao of Pooh** - Benjamin Hoff Next will be Franken’s book. ---
**Author:** ![Baggins111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@Baggins111](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baggins111)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/65 "2003-09-30T12:33:24Z")
Duh, **Odyssey** only has ONE “D” ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/66 "2003-09-30T14:01:03Z")
I’ve been going through everything by **Simon Winchester**. Just finished _Krakatoa_, and am halfway through his book on British Nobility, and have a reserve at the library for his most recent on the OED. At my wife’s recommendation, last night I began **Ann Patchett’s** _bel canto_. Beautifully written and fascinating. I highly recommend it. Next up on my night stand is _The Pencil_, a study of industrial design. Can’t wait to see how he fills so many pages about a simple bit of graphite and wood! And a thin volume of the physics involved in golf… ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/67 "2003-09-30T17:32:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\*At my wife’s recommendation, last night I began **Ann Patchett’s** _bel canto_. Beautifully written and fascinating. I highly recommend it. \*\* I read that this summer. It was a great story. I hope you enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/68 "2003-09-30T18:29:14Z")
Currently working on: _Why Things Bite Back: Technology And The Revenge Of Unintended Consequences_ - Edward Tenner. As you can tell from the subtitle, it deals with topics like antibiotic-resistant bacteria, earthquake proofing and other elements of modern society that may have improved life in one respect, but are causing problems in other situations. _The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste_ - Jane & Michael Stern If you like kitsch - this is the book for you! Lots of pictures and 1-4 pages on Liberace, fake fur, boudoir photography and more! _Girl With a Pearl Necklace_ - Tracy Chevalier Historical fiction - told by a girl who goes to work for Vermeer as a maid. Am just about a chapter in and I’m hooked! ---
**Author:** ![Kieras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a87d85/32.png) [@Kieras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kieras)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/69 "2003-10-02T03:57:22Z")
Mein Kempf ---
**Author:** ![nisosbar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@nisosbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nisosbar)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/70 "2003-10-02T11:08:12Z")
Just started **Clan of the Cave Bear** yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/71 "2003-10-02T11:16:19Z")
I just finished A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks. I’ll be looking for something to start today. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/72 "2003-10-02T11:39:50Z")
Just finished up Wyrd Sisters and The Truth by Terry Prachett, as well as The File on the Tsar: The Fate of the Romanovs- Dramatic New Evidence. (fairly old book, belongs to my hubby, was published in 1976). Not sure what I want to read next, out of new books at home…a trip to B&N might be in order. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/73 "2003-10-02T11:46:25Z")
Just finished _Choke_ and _Survivor_ by Chuck Palahniuk. My current commuting book is _A History of the Arab Peoples_ by Albert Hourani Sitting on my bedstand are _Night Movements_ (manual for nighttime warfare) and _Wilderness Survival_, the authors of which I can’t remember right now. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/74 "2003-10-02T11:55:29Z")
Just finished Doug Adam’s _Last Chance to See._ I enjoyed it very much, but now I’ve read all his books.☹ ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/75 "2003-10-02T15:21:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WordMan \* > \*\ ***Grim** - have you read _Disgrace_ by J.M. Coetzee? It won the Booker - best book I have read in a decade. Brilliantly written, uses a man’s life and the troubles he runs into to comment on race relations in South Africa. \*\* He’s also just won the [Nobel Prize for Literature](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3158278.stm). “Not too shabby, eh Nige?” Grim ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/76 "2003-10-02T15:34:32Z")
**Gallows Thief** by Bernard Cornwall. It’s like John Grisham set in 19th-century London. ---
**Author:** ![acrossthesea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@acrossthesea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acrossthesea)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/77 "2003-10-02T16:53:42Z")
_She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders_ by Jennifer Finney Boylan. An amazingly insightful and intriguing memoir about a man who becomes a woman. I just finished reading _I Was a Teenage Fairy_ by Francesca Lia Block (author of the Weetzie Bat books…my favorite author by the way.) Other interesting books I’ve read lately include _Candy_ by Mian Mian, a novel about heroin, sex, and other great topics in modern China, and _Visible Amazement_, by Gale Zoe Garnet (I think that’s her name, sorry if I’m wrong), which I read a few years ago and forgot the name of and finally now found again. That book deals with teenage runaways, a french dwarf living in the woods, and other fun things. I read this one 2 years ago but let me also reccommend _Just Like Beauty_, a novel set sometime in the future where teenage beauty queen contestants must perform really scary, freaky rituals in competition. ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/78 "2003-10-03T16:06:58Z")
I am currently reading **Adoption healing** not sure who wrote it. I am looking forward to getting Mitch’s new book this weekend…ya know about he 5 people you meet in heaven. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/79 "2003-10-03T21:14:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Isabelle \* > \*\*I am currently reading **Adoption healing** not sure who wrote it. I am looking forward to getting Mitch’s new book this weekend…ya know about he 5 people you meet in heaven. \*\* A good book, especially for someone like me who really doesn’t read fiction. Reading it was an emotional experience for me. I read the 1st half on a flight out to Denver about a week ago, reflected a little, [posted a thread about it in MPSIMS](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4027405#post4027405) and finished it on the flight back a couple days ago. The only reason I can come up for why the book forced me to inner-reflect and why it caused me to well up a few times (in public-on a flight no less) is probably due to the fact I’ve never really had to face death before - and I ended up equating the experiences of the literary characters to myself and others I know. ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918/80 "2003-10-03T23:02:38Z")
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I said I would wait for the paperback. I lied. Hehehe I’m about halfway through it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-whatcha-reading-thread/203918.md?page=5)