# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - February 2025 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 30, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643 "2025-01-30T20:57:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/41 "2025-02-17T14:28:24Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I got a good start on The Inquisitor’s Tale this morning and am enjoying both the story and the illustrations. SO WEIRD! I finished reading it with my daughter a week or two ago. What I’d forgotten was the excellent afterwork, in which the author talks about the real-world historical events and legends that he drew on for the novel. It’s a wonderful afterword, and I hope you enjoy it, and the rest of the book. I’m currently reading _You Like it Darker_, by Stephen King, the first King I’ve read in more than a decade. It’s…okay? When I was a teenager I noticed that Stephen King’s novels were populated by an inordinate number of novelists, and it was the first time I realized how far some authors take “write what you know.” This book is populated by an inordinate number of old White geezers. I guess he continues to write what he knows. Some of the stories are the SNL-skit equivalent of horror short stories: he clearly had one cool idea and is stretching it out into an entire story. But there was one surprisingly moving moment at the end of the first story in the series that almost brought tears to my eyes; maybe I identified too much with it. And he is, as always, a very engaging writer who keeps things moving along at a brisk clip. I’ll finish the collection, and probably wait another decade before reading another King book. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/42 "2025-02-17T15:02:20Z")
Being boring and conventional, I’m reading _Moby Dick_. I’ll say it’s something like a Mt. Everest of literature for me, certainly an achievement and experience that’s worth the effort, but a lot of it just sucks. There are 2 entire chapters about historical sculptures, statues, and portraits of whales, and why they’re wrong. Melville has no qualms about going off on some multi-paragraph apostrophic rant directed at some 3rd-tier figure from Greek or Babylonian antiquity. He leaves no noun unadjected, he likes his similes lengthy and elaborate. Parts of the prose swell and gas like the floating carcass of a blasted whale, yet despite the stench you must rake the innards for the elusive lumps of ambergris known to lodge in this mass of text. Anyway it’s OK once you get into it, but learn to recognize where Melville is launching into these monomaniacal flights of fancy, and feel free to just speed right by those. I’m pretty sure he was autistic and/or hopped up on whatever was the 19th-century version of meth. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/43 "2025-02-17T16:39:09Z")
I’m taking a break from H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang’s **The World’s Desire** (AKA The Further Adventures of Odysseus), which seems to be bogging down after an exciting first couple of chapters. I’m reading Poul Anderson’s **The Guardians of Time** , which is interesting. I’m also reading a couple of books on animal behavior as background for a story I want to write. I’ve also picked up **Damn you, Entropy!: 1001 of the Greatest Science Fiction Quotes** , edited by Guy P. Harrison. The title, taken from Andrew Weir’s _The Martian_, ought to have tipped me off – an _awful_ lot of his quotes are from _very_ recent books (within the past five years), TV shows, and movies. There are some from older works (some of them a little obscure, even), and he quotes Voltaire’s _Micromegas_, but I’d have expected a lot more Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, etc. He quotes Liu Cixin and Ken Liu an awful lot, as well as a lot from the Star Trek franchise. On audio, I took a break from _Treasure Island_ to listen to Heinlein’s _I Will FEar No Evil_, which I’m not sure I have read since my initial reading in the early 1970s. It’s rare that I find Heinlein audio in libraries, so I had to pick this one up. I’ve picked up a trove of Robert E. Howard on audiodisc for after I finish Heinlein and Stevenson. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/44 "2025-02-18T16:18:22Z")
**Eight of Swords** John Dickson Carr A classic from the Golden Age of Mystery. What seems to be a simple case = A man staying in a guest house of an English estate receives a mysterious visitor late one evening and the next morning he is found dead, shot at close range. - turns out to be anything but simple. It was fun thinking about the mystery and reading along as the detectives unraveled what really happened. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/45 "2025-02-20T00:51:43Z")
Finished _The Northwomen: Untold Stories From the Other Half of the Viking World_, by Heather Pringle, which I recommend to those interested in that era, and _The Night Dahlia_, a fantasy mystery by R. S. Belcher, which I enjoyed for its language and humor. Still reading _The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes_, edited by Gyles Brandreth. Next up: _Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain_, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner; and _The Monsters of Rookhaven_, a fantasy by Padraig Kenny. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/46 "2025-02-21T15:19:55Z")
I finished The Inquisitor’s Tale. A good yarn, though I kept wondering how much longer it would be allowed in a school library. Especially with all those naughty words. 😉 I’m midway through Not Quite A Ghost now. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/47 "2025-02-22T01:58:48Z")
I finished _The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie_ by Carla Valentine yesterday and for the most part it was good. The author did a bit of fangirling but overall stuck to the topics. My only complaint - the repetition of a half dozen phrases - _should_ have been caught by a halfway decent editor, but that wasn’t bad enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/48 "2025-02-23T05:55:28Z")
Just finished [How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question](https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Perfect-Correct-Question/dp/1982159324) by Michael Schur. It is a humorous and irreverent overview of the field of [moral philosophy (aka ethics).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics) The reason it is humorous and irreverent is that Schur is not an academic or author as such; he writes and directs TV sitcoms like _Brooklyn 99, Parks And Recreation_, and, crucially, _The Good Place_, an afterlife sitcom that frequently and directly references moral philosophy. I’m not qualified to judge how accurate his representations of that field are, but I have read reviews by people who are, and they seem to agree that it is a more or less reasonable overview of the material you might expect in a low level Moral Philosophy 101 course. It is entertaining and thoughtful, although sometimes he lays on the wisecracking humor so thick, it can seem like reading _Dave Barry’s Guide To Moral Philosophy_. (It is not an official tie-in with _The Good Place_, although the show is referenced several times, and I’m told the cast members participate in the audiobook version.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/49 "2025-02-23T13:58:05Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I finished The Inquisitor’s Tale. A good yarn, though I kept wondering how much longer it would be allowed in a school library. Especially with all those naughty words. I’m all about kids reading it–but when I saw a fourth-grade teacher using it for a read-aloud, I strongly advised them to read ahead and think carefully about the plan. They decided on a different book. I finished _You Want it Darker_, and while there were definitely some mediocre stories in there, taken as an old man’s retrospective, it’s got some very moving moments. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/50 "2025-02-23T16:20:20Z")
Finished _Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain_, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, which was interesting; and _The Monsters of Rookhaven_, a fantasy by Padraig Kenny, which was okay. Still reading _The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes_, edited by Gyles Brandreth. Now I’m reading _Weird Inventions: Bizarre Gadgets You Can’t Live Without_, by Edward Hopper, et al, and _Paratime_, by H. Beam Piper, which is a science fiction story collection about the Paratime Police. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/51 "2025-02-24T14:22:14Z")
Started this morning and read 80 pages of a 104-page novella called [A Short Stay In Hell](https://www.amazon.com/Short-Stay-Hell-Steven-Peck/dp/098374842X/), by Steven Peck. So far, so freakin’ good. I’ll probably go hide out somewhere this afternoon and finish it up. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/52 "2025-02-24T19:32:45Z")
Done. I really liked it. I’ve always dug microcosm books, about different worlds with strange rules, and the people who struggle to escape or make sense of them. It’s kind of a bummer that it doesn’t really have an ending, but then you wouldn’t expect it to, would you? ---
**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:** [February 25, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/53 "2025-02-25T17:04:26Z")
Started this morning on [The Garden](https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Nick-Newman/dp/0593717732/) by Nick Newman, a novel about two sisters who live on a walled estate, shielded from whatever remains of a damaged world. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/54 "2025-02-28T14:43:05Z")
Finished The Garden, it was decent. Started this morning on [Between Two Fires](https://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Fires-Christopher-Buehlman/dp/B08C9D71PS/) by Christopher Buehlman, the story of a medieval knight and a girl who claims to see angels, journeying through a plague-ridden land on a quest. Not to jinx anything, but it’s been a really good reading year so far! ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/55 "2025-02-28T20:19:08Z")
Next Month: [Is that spring I see jumping up and down in the middle of the street? (Offer not valid in Australia, South America, southern Africa or New Zealand)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2025-edition/1014943/2) ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/56 "2025-02-28T20:21:12Z")
I will check out The Garden and I await your feedback on Between Two Fires. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/57 "2025-02-28T22:27:41Z")
Finished _Weird Inventions: Bizarre Gadgets You Can’t Live Without_, by Edward Hopper, et al. My favorite was a plastic wishbone, so families who fight over it at Thanksgiving can have extras. The inventor sued Sears when they sold something similar, and he won 1.7 million dollars. Also finished _Paratime_, by H. Beam Piper. My favorite story was “He Walked Around the Horses”, which multiple people said I would enjoy when I mentioned it in the “What’s the First Sentence” thread. The other stories (especially “Time Crime”) really didn’t age well, which is not uncommon in older works of fiction, but it’s especially noticeable here. Still reading _The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes_, edited by Gyles Brandreth. Next up: _The Great Sweepstakes of 1877: A True Story of Southern Grit, Gilden Age Tycoons, and a Race That Galvanized the Nation_, by Mark Shrager; and _An Episode of Sparrows_, by Rumer Godden. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/58 "2025-03-03T03:49:19Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …Just started _Baghdad Without a Map_ by Tony Horwitz, about his travels as a young reporter through the Middle East in 1991. It’s not nearly as good as I remember _Confederates in the Attic_ as being, but I’ll stick with it for now. Finished it. A bit dated now, but still worth a read. I zipped through _Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White_ by Melissa Sweet, a charming YA bio of the _Charlotte’s Web_ and _Stuart Little_ author, including interesting details on his childhood, upbringing, literary inspirations and early work on _The New Yorker._ My favorite takeaway: it took him 17 takes to read aloud the scene of Charlotte’s death in creating an early audiobook, he was so choked up. My current audiobook is _Headhunters_ by Jo Nesbo, a dark comedy/crime thriller about an arrogant corporate headhunter who runs murderously afoul of his latest recruit. It was adapted as a crazy good 2011 Norwegian film, which I saw some years ago. The movie follows the book pretty closely, but I actually think I like the movie better. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643/59 "2025-03-03T13:47:28Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My favorite takeaway: it took him 17 takes to read aloud the scene of Charlotte’s death in creating an early audiobook, he was so choked up. Oh man! I read that one aloud to my kids, and bawled. That’s wonderful to know it was the same for the author. He was RADIANT. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2025-edition/1013643.md?page=2)