# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - December 2024 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** books-writing-myths
**Created:** [December 2, 2024, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041 "2024-12-02T01:13:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/61 "2024-12-25T17:04:53Z")
Finished _A Talent for Murder_ by Peter Swanson. Decent murder-mystery about a pair of women trying to track down a serial killer. Surprising plot twist at the end.
Next up: _The Waiting_ by Michael Connelly. A Renee Ballard and Maddie Bosch mystery.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/62 "2024-12-26T11:25:20Z")
Finished rereading the LOTR trilogy. Still holds up. Still much better than the moviee (for the most part).
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/63 "2024-12-26T15:37:09Z")
Currently reading [The Legacy of Arniston House](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250883094/thelegacyofarnistonhouse/), by T.L. Huchu, fourth in a series about a Scottish ghosttalker. A bit of a slog, but it’s not the book’s fault. I’m not in the right mood. However, the setting is in Edinburgh, where I recently visited, so it’s interesting to envision the fictional events in these real-world places.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/64 "2024-12-27T00:39:26Z")
Finished _Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality_, by Jacob Tomsky, which I enjoyed; and _A Concise History of Scotland_, by Sir Fitzroy Maclean, which was interesting.
Next up: _The Shining Cog and Other Steampunk Tales_, by Doc Coleman, and _Grailblazers_, by Tom Holt.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2024, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/65 "2024-12-30T00:23:53Z")
Finished _The Shining Cog and Other Steampunk Tales_, by Doc Coleman, of which the best story was the title one, and _Grailblazers_, by Tom Holt, which I enjoyed very much. Funniest book I’ve read this year. Felt very Discworld-ish. I kept expecting the knights to meet the Watch or Granny Weatherwax.
Next up: _The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time: How Apple, Ford, Zappos, and Others Made Radical Choices That Changed the Course of Business_, edited by Verne Harnish, et al.; _The Spectre General_, by Theodore Cogswell; and _E for Effort_, by T. L. Sherred.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2024, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/66 "2024-12-30T14:04:54Z")
New thread: [It’s a New Year!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-january-2025-edition/1012343)
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2025, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/67 "2025-01-01T12:32:45Z")
Finished _The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time: How Apple, Ford, Zappos, and Others Made Radical Choices That Changed the Course of Business_, edited by Verne Harnish, et al.; which I enjoyed for the great historical anecdotes it contained. I also liked _The Spectre General_, by Theodore Cogswell and _E for Effort_, by T. L. Sherred, both science fiction, the former more than the latter.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2025, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2024-edition/1011041/68 "2025-01-02T02:35:16Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#):
>
> I also liked _The Spectre General_, by Theodore Cogswell and _E for Effort_, by T. L. Sherred, both science fiction, the former more than the latter.
Theodore Cogswell is a little-known and underappreciated author. He’s one of that tribe that wrote lots of short stories in the 1950s with twist endings – Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Ricard Matheson, Charles Beaumont. Even the early Harlan Ellison. The magazines snapped up that kind of thing.
Several of his stories were collected as **Wall Around the World**. There’s a Theodore Cogswell Megapack e-book out now. He also wrote an early Star Trek novel – _Spock, Messiah_.
He also wrote a science fiction play with his wife George Rae , _Contact Point_. It’s in the collection _Six Science Fiction Plays_, edited by Roger Elwood. Unlike the movie script and the Teleplay in the collection, it’s a real stage play that requires minimal and easy special effects. I think it’s the best of the actual plays in the collection. I don’t know if anyone has ever performed it onstage. Apparently, in a different form, it had been an episode (“Red Dust”, May 2 1952) of the 1950s TV series _Tales of Tomorrow_.
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