# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - September 2025 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths
**Created:** [August 28, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554 "2025-08-28T18:38:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/1 "2025-08-28T18:38:32Z")
September… so after an incredibly dry summer-as in no measurable precipitation since May- my city got, I kid you not, a normal summer’s worth of rain in an hour. In other words it poured. Today is nice, sunny and a bit damp and I can almost hear the lawn sighing in relief.
So whatcha all readin as we slide into fall?
Print:
_The Future_ by Naomi Alderman. I feel like she’s lost the plot here and is foundering around trying to decide where to go next. It’s my book club book so I may end up skimming the rest.
_Rogue Protocol_ by Martha Wells, just in the mood to reread _The Murbot Diaries_ and she has a new one coming out next spring.
KIndle:
_11:59_ by C.S. Poe, one of my favorite m/m writers. A novella about a swordsman and a dancer and a city full of monsters.
Audiobook: _The Element of Magic_ by Martha Wells. I am very glad this wasn’t my intro to her because I am not going on with this series. Soooooooo much politics and so much standing around staring at walls - to quote Murderbot- between the action scenes. It’s taking me forever to read it.
_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._
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/2 "2025-08-28T18:41:58Z")
Last month: [Can it start to cool down now that August is gone?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/72)
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/3 "2025-08-28T19:01:47Z")
Thanks for the new thread, @DZedNConfused!
[The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand by Christopher Golden | Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220377457-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=UhX3QAYZw8&rank=1)
I’m still working on this one. I had looked forward to it so much, but not enjoying it as much as I expected. There’s a lot of gore, and skating up to the edge of how much animal abuse I will accept. I mean, I know it’s the end of the world, but doesn’t anyone have anything _nice_ to say? 🤪 The first story in particular was just awful.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/4 "2025-08-28T20:08:19Z")
You’re Welcome! I can’t calendar this month, I was thinking it was the 30th already… 😆
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/5 "2025-08-28T20:09:22Z")
My mind has already made the leap to the long weekend!
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2025, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/6 "2025-08-29T21:01:58Z")
I’ve been derelict in my reading for many months, but I’m wrapping up Book 3 of the Expanse series by James SA Corey, _Abaddon’s Gate_. It’s a barn burner of a read. My favorite of the books so far, building on themes of revenge, faith and redemption.
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### Author:  [@Tj54](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tj54)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2025, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/7 "2025-08-30T04:05:44Z")
I’ve been wading through “Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow. 1200 pages!
I’m only a quarter of the way through it, but very fascinating. Twain is someone we all know by his wit and writings, yet this book brings to life the unique charecter he was within his time and history.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2025, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/8 "2025-08-30T12:21:37Z")
I finally finished _Gone With the Wind_. Dear lord that book is ENTIRELY too long. I did like Scarlett up until she got the convicts to work at her mill. Then she started on her downward slide and became less enjoyable. Speaking of less, I thought I had no tolerance for the “Lost Cause” bullshit. I now have negative tolerance because it took up half the freakin’ book. You lost! Shut up already!
Also Ashley Wilkes should have fallen into a smooth, deep hole. Useless little twat.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/9 "2025-08-30T17:17:55Z")
I started _Of Monsters and Mainframes_ by Barara Truelove yesterday. I haven’t got very far but I like Demeter, and Steward’s snark is fabulous.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2025, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/10 "2025-09-01T12:13:55Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> I’m wrapping up Book 3 of the Expanse series by James SA Corey, _Abaddon’s Gate_.
Man, those books were so good. I think they reinvigorated my interest in space opera–and they might have reinvigorated the whole subgenre, making it less about Big Strapping Manly Heroes and more about relationships and character (and a whole bunch of kickass set pieces).
The only book I’ve finished since my last post was the sequel to _Children of Mind:_ [Children of Ruin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-ruin), by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I preferred the first in the series, but the author definitely takes this one in an interesting direction, with two new alien intelligences who think _very_ differently. And it contains one of the scariest sequences I’ve ever read. We’re going on an adventure! (_shudder_)
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/11 "2025-09-01T14:16:43Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Man, those books were so good.
Agreed. I first fell in love with the Expanse TV series, and you never know when you read the series whether it’s going to feel repetitive or otherwise disappoint, but there is enough different from the show that I’ve been entertained the whole way through. It’s interesting because Holden has more or less a flat character arc but the author is always finding inventive ways to test his mettle. This stuff is gonna be classic.
_The Mercy of Gods_ is very different, but also very good.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/12 "2025-09-01T21:19:06Z")
Zipped through _Hong Kong 20s-70s [sic] Motoring_ by Andrew Ng, a picture book about cars in the then-British colony. A friend who knows I’m a history nerd gave me the book (which is well-illustrated but badly-edited), or I would probably never have read it at all.
Almost halfway through _The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America_ by Jeffrey Rosen, an interesting book about moral philosophy in a historic context. Rosen very engagingly shows how such ancient thinkers as Cicero, Pythagoras and Aristotle, as well as Enlightenment writers such as Montesquieu, Hume and Locke, influenced the American Framers. He argues that while the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” long predated the Declaration of Independence, “happiness” to Jefferson, Adams, Franklin et al. meant personal virtue - “as _being_ good, rather than _feeling_ good.”
I’m also rereading _The End of All Things_ by John Scalzi, which had long been the last book in his excellent military sf _Old Man’s War_ series, in preparation for the release of the next book, _The Shattering Peace_. The first chapter of _The End of All Things_ is “The Life of the Mind” - still one of the best, most satisfying tales of revenge I’ve ever read.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/13 "2025-09-02T17:42:55Z")
I hit pause on The End of the World As We Know It, and moved on to [Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher | Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217388302-hemlock-silver)
(Because I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel!)
It’s perfect, of course. I particularly dig the main character’s affinity for snakes.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/14 "2025-09-02T18:10:58Z")
A bit late, I know, but I just listened to the first hour of _A Walk In the Woods_ by Bill Bryson. I think I will enjoy it.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/15 "2025-09-02T18:16:40Z")
I finished **The Bounty Mutiny** (A collection of Bligh’s writings, the courtmartial transcript, Edward Christian’s writings, and some other bits, like an account dictated by Jenny, one of the wives from Pitcairn Island.)
I also finished Dan Beard’s **Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties** – a fun read.
Now I’m re-reading two of the L. Sprague de Camp/Lin Carter “Conan” books – **Conan the Buccaneer** and **Conan of the Isles**. I’ve re-read Robert E,. Howard’s Conan stories many times over, but I don’t think I’ve re-read these even once since they first came out, over half a century ago. The de Camp and Carter stories stayed in print from their first publication (1966 and later) until the early 1990s. Since then, Conan fans have concentrated on Howard’s original stories . I don’t think any of the de Camp/Carter books have been republished in the past thirty years. Except, for some reason, for the movie tie-in they wrote for the release of the 1982 Schwartzeneggar film. That was republished recently.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/16 "2025-09-02T19:58:01Z")
Starting it today as well!
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/17 "2025-09-02T20:06:10Z")
Sister! 😁
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/18 "2025-09-03T13:48:50Z")
Oh! Yesterday I received the latest Stephen King book, his re-telling of Hansel and Gretel with drawings by Maurice Sendak. I was underwhelmed. The illustrations are dull and lacking in charm (in my opinion) and the story is meh. King gives the witch a name that will be recognized by readers of Dark Tower series; otherwise, no surprises. I haven’t decided if I should keep this with my other King books or give it to some convenient child, but I’m leaning towards the latter.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/19 "2025-09-04T21:36:22Z")
I finished _The Future_ by Naomi Alderman and… umm… Have I mentioned how much I hate Deus ex Machina? This book was one long deus ex machina. And while I don’t disagree with the sentiment that social media has made us all a bit meaner and argumentive, I really don’t think the path to utopia is to get rid of the CEOs of the major tech companies…
And there was some weird biblical intrpretation of the story of Lot that seemed to serve no purpose.
On the up side I started _Hemlock & Silver_ by T. Kingfisher and am enjoying it a lot.
Still reading the Muderbot Diaries, am about halfway through _Exit Strategy._
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/20 "2025-09-04T22:36:35Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#):
>
> I really don’t think the path to utopia is to get rid of the CEOs of the major tech companies…
Sometimes I wonder…
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