# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - October 2026 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 1, 2026, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495 "2026-10-01T01:10:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [October 1, 2026, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/1 "2026-10-01T01:10:30Z")
October is here! Time to get the skellys out of the basement and hang the ghosts on my porch. If you’re up north, it’s time to bust out the long sleeved shirts and comfy hoodies. Down south, time get out the shorts and make sure the AC is working. And the one thing that binds us together is PUMPKIN SPICE!! Haahahaha, nah, I’m joking, it’s reading and I have T. Kingfisher’s latest book hot off the presses! Currently reading: Print: _Death on the Nile_ by Agatha Christie. One of the books I remember the twist because it was so spectacularly evil to my teenage mind. Kindle: _Monsters and Manners_ by Tilly Wallace. Bless her heart she is trying SO hard to channel Gail Carriger and failing so badly. I’ll finish it but it’s just not hooking me. _Khadaji was one of the earlier members of SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, who started these threads 'way back in the Stone Age of 2005. Consequently, when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in January 2013, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive._ ---
**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:** [October 1, 2026, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/2 "2026-10-01T01:12:19Z")
Last month: [The leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way…](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2026-edition/1032704) ---
**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 1, 2026, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/3 "2026-10-01T13:29:30Z")
I took a trip recently and read some stuff that was on my Kindle, a couple short stories by Joe Hill, and The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. That one was just okay, I think I’d read it before. Currently I’m reading > **[Stay Buried](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242977927-stay-buried)** > > From the New York Times bestselling author of Children … It passes the time, but it’s not compelling. Saturday it goes back to the library, finished or not! ---
**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:** [October 1, 2026, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/4 "2026-10-01T17:32:39Z")
The one book, _The Winter People_, I read by McMahon was … okay. Not really scary and I felt she missed the landing and the end was so flat. And I never could get through Mr Ripley, Highsmith bores me to snores. ---
**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 1, 2026, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/5 "2026-10-01T18:00:16Z")
Re McMahon: I always appreciate it if people are trying to write the kind of stuff I like to read. And she’s not a _bad_ writer. It just doesn’t jell somehow. Re Highsmith: I liked Strangers on a Train. But when Ripley ended, I was like, “oh, is that all then?” Maybe it was shocking in its time. Well, anyway, this is the time of year when all my library holds come in at once. Plus Stephen King’s new one comes out next week! So I have plenty of books, not enough time. The story of my life! ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/6 "2026-10-01T18:37:23Z")
Reading Star Wars Edge of the Abyss. Novel set at the height of the Empire about a year before Andor and 10 years or so after the founding of the New Order. This one is not bad but I’m enjoyed the first of this trilogy more (which took place days after the Republic became an Empire). It is fun seeing Mon Mothma and Bail Organa in action though. I enjoy the politics of Star Wars ---
**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:** [October 1, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/7 "2026-10-01T20:08:03Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > And she’s not a _bad_ writer. It just doesn’t jell somehow. Yes, this. I read the book, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t quite right, as you said it didn’t gel properly. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2026, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/8 "2026-10-02T13:23:57Z")
Finished _Elysium Fire_, by Alastair Reynolds, which was okay, and _Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children_, by Mac Barnett, which was one big cliche’ except for his analysis of _Goodnight Moon._ Next up: _Catfish Lullaby_, by A.C. Wise; and _Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us About Raising a Family_, by Stephen H. Segal and Valya Dudycz. Lupescu. ---
**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, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2026-edition/1033495/9 "2026-10-02T14:21:34Z")
Started today on > **[Obstetrix](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240019643-obstetrix)** > > From the Hugo award-winning author Naomi Kritzer comes … An abortion doctor is kidnapped by a cult. It’s supposed to be set in a future dystopia, but it just seems like our current dystopia to me.