# It's Time for Another "Whatcha Readin'?" Thread! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231 "2004-06-08T04:11:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/161 "2004-07-07T03:51:14Z")
> [@Quixotic](#): > > **Misnomer** , if you want to take a look at a book/movie combo where the movie lives up to the novel, take a chance on _Mystic River_. That movie is currently at #11 in my Netflix queue. šŸ™‚ Iā€™m looking forward to it. In your opinion, does it matter whether I watch the movie first? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/162 "2004-07-07T12:16:17Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > In your opinion, does it matter whether I watch the movie first? Thatā€™s a good question. I donā€™t _think_ so - the screenplay is very good, Penn and Robbins are worthy of their Oscars, etc. The biggest ā€œmissingā€ part is the psychological subtext Lehane goes into at times, but having read the novel first, itā€™s hard for me to say if someone who hasnā€™t will be able to appreciate as much about that aspect of the film. I think Robbins especially did exceptionally well with it, but then I _knew_ what he was supposed to be thinking in certain scenes from having read the novel (and I read it just a few days before I saw the film, so it was still fresh in my mind). Probably the biggest gap in the screenplay adaptation was the loss of some more of the detail in the respective family lives of Jimmy, Dave, and Sean. The wives especially come across much more vividly in the novel (well, Jimmyā€™s and Daveā€™s do), although there is a powerful scene with Jimmy and his wife (yet another great perfomrance in this film, this one from Laura Linney) late in the film that is taken almost word-for-word from the novel. At worst, Iā€™d guess your appreciation of the story will be improved by reading the novel later, but the film _does_ capture the spirit of the novel very well. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/163 "2004-07-07T18:49:00Z")
Iā€™ve been on a Kurt Vonnegut kick - have read through _Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage_, _Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fictions_ and _Conversations With Kurt Vonnegut_ - ed William R. Allen. Am trying to decide which of his novels to dive into next. Any suggestions? (Iā€™ve read _Catā€™s Cradle_ fairly recently - so thatā€™s out) Also read: _Only You Can Save Mankind_ by Terry Pratchett ā€“ a bit more serious than I thought it would be. _Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings_ - Christopher Moore ā€“ a good companion to _Lamb_ and a fun read! Currently reading the 35th anniversary edition of _Dangerous Visions_ ed. Harlan Ellison. A remarkable collection of spec-fic that challenged the taboos of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/164 "2004-07-07T20:44:32Z")
**Politzania** ā€™s mention of a collection reminded me to recommend [_The Dark Descent_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312862172/qid=1089232483/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-1970680-2232004?v=glance&s=books), an anthology wherein ā€œeditor David G. Hartwell traces the complex history of horror in literature back to the earliest short storiesā€ (from the book description). My reading of this collection has been ā€˜in-progressā€™ for quite a while, because I keep putting it aside in order to read other books (itā€™s also kind of big, and cumbersome for reading in bed ā€“ where most of my reading gets done). Every now and then, though, Iā€™ll pick it up and read a story or two, and I think Iā€™m about halfway through the anthology. What a great, great collection for horror loversā€¦even for just horror _likers_! šŸ™‚ ---
**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:** [July 7, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/165 "2004-07-07T20:48:02Z")
Yeah, Iā€™ve got that one. Itā€™s a good one. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/166 "2004-07-12T12:12:23Z")
Last week I read [Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/031230093X/002-6816062-9313652?v=glance) by Michael Newton Over the weekend [Every Second Counts](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767914481/qid=1089634300/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-6816062-9313652) by Lance Armstrong. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/167 "2004-07-12T17:53:31Z")
I just finished _Bleachers_, by John Grisham. It was terriffic! Itā€™s so masterfully written that it sucked me in from the very beginning, even though Iā€™m not a football fan. Grisham just gets better and better. I just started Sue Graftonā€™s _ā€˜Aā€™ Is For Alabi_. Iā€™ve never read Grafton before, but I expect Iā€™ll be cruising the alphabet with her now. She has a crisp, straightforward style that carries me right along. Good writer. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/168 "2004-07-12T18:20:39Z")
I just finished Teachign on Poverty Rock - a very short story of a teacher from Ohio who moves to the Serattle Area to teach elementary school at one of the most affluent suburbs and all of the parents he has to deal with. It was a minor controversey here becayuse he used real situations and real people but changed everyoneā€™s name (but his). I think at one point the school was going to fire him. Not sure what ended up coming of it. Now iā€™m reading Curses, Broiled Again - A collection of various Urban Legends and their debunkings. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/169 "2004-07-12T21:36:49Z")
> [@DesertGeezer](#): > > I just started Sue Graftonā€™s _ā€˜Aā€™ Is For Alabi_. Iā€™ve never read Grafton before, but I expect Iā€™ll be cruising the alphabet with her now. She has a crisp, straightforward style that carries me right along. Good writer. Her first books were really good, but the last few just arenā€™t quite up to snuff. If you like Grafton, you should also read the Janet Evanovich books - they start with _One For The Money_, continue with _Two For The Dough_, _Three To Get Deadly_ and so on. Her latest is _Ten Big Ones_. Very, very funny. Iā€™m talking laugh-out-loud funny. I used to think I wanted to be Kinsey Millhone when I grew up, but now I want to be Stephanie Plum. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/170 "2004-07-19T00:09:59Z")
[The Winter Queen](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812968778/102-7733321-3090509?v=glance) by boris Akunin is the first of a nine volume Russian mystery series to be published in the U.S. It was a good summer read, though it shouldnā€™t have the ending caught me by surprise. Then I read [The Age of Innocence](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812567102/qid=1090195112/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-7733321-3090509) by Edith Wharton. Iā€™d read it years ago but the book group was reading it and I wanted it to be fresh. I had forgotten the sentimental feeling of the ending. Most recently, [In Albertā€™s Shadow: The Life and Letters of Mileva Maricā€™, Einsteinā€™s First Wife.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/080187856X/qid=1090195466/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7733321-3090509?v=glance&s=books) edited by Milan Popovic. A collection of 65 letters she sent to her dear friend Helen Savic, with a few notes from Albert included as well. The editor includes a brief biographical essay as well. This is not a terribly thorough biographical work. The letters do provide some insight into their relationship and how happy she was at first and how heartbroken later. However you donā€™t learn much about what a promising physicist she was. Itā€™s a fairly quick read. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231/171 "2004-07-19T05:44:05Z")
I finished \*A Is For Alabi \* last night (this morning, actually) and intend to crack _B Is For Burglar_ tonite. I think Iā€™ll stick with Grafton for a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-whatcha-readin-thread/249231.md?page=8)