# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - February 2016 Edition

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 30, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636 "2016-01-30T03:45:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/21 "2016-02-07T13:59:48Z")

</div>

I finished _The Brothers Cabal_, which was a very good installment in the series, even if or perhaps because it centered largely on Johannes’s brother, Horst. We meet daring entomopter pilots, zombies, werethings, and plenty of good fun. I would recommend it. Reading it led me to my two most recent reads, thanks to Goodreads recommendation of more like it.

The first, Mark Hodder’s first installment in the Burton & Swinburne series, gets some credit for being quite an interesting premise. We are in an altered steampunk past, in which the assassination of Queen Victoria leads to major changes, many of them quite good fun. But it lacks humor, and I am not sure the plot of this first one, which is essentially the backstory of the assassination, could not have been much clearer. Okay, but not a series I will continue.

By contrast, Charles Stross’s Laundry Files, of which I have read the first, The Atrocity Archives, will be continued. I was a bit surprised that this first volume was essentially two standalone novellas, which could easily have been sold separately, but the premise–essentially, maths is magic, and opens portals to other dimensions–is fun, the writing is good, and the characters are likeable.

Finally, I opened James Holland’s The War in the West: Germany Ascendant. First thirty pages only, but well written and carefully evaluative already.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 7, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/22 "2016-02-07T20:52:20Z")

</div>

I finished Arthur C. Clarke’s 1957 short-story collection _Tales from the White Hart_. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re a big Clarke fan.

Still enjoying _The Kennedy Wit_, ed. by Bill Adler, and the audiobook of _Collision 2012_ by Dan Balz (now about a quarter of the way through). I’ve also started _HMS Leviathan_ by John Winton, a 1967 novel about a troubled Royal Navy aircraft carrier and its new commanding officer.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 8, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/23 "2016-02-08T21:31:31Z")

</div>

I finished the first volume of Niall Ferguson’s biography _Henry Kissinger 1923-1968: The Idealist_. It’s a good read, meticulously researched, and tries to give a sense of the era as well. The title is an obvious poke at all those who pigeonholed Kissinger as a Pragmatist. He makes his case at considerable length, but I think more people would say that they thought of Kissinger as a pragmatist based on what he did \* after becoming National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State). The biggest problem I had with the book was when the clearly conservative Mr. Fergusen stated something that he evidently took as obvious, but which was not so to me. He obviously doesn’t much care for Christopher Hitchens and William Shawcross – both wrote books portraying Kissinger as the author of multiple evils, which Ferguson obviously does not. But when he says that Tom Lehrer is an obscure songwriter and that he’s better known for his line “Irony died the day that Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize”, I know it’s his bias acting up. He seems similarly bewildered that left-leaning critics of the Vietnam War didn’t understand the actions of the administrations, and tasks them for political naivete. I think he believes in the Domino Theory. I’ll be interested to read the next volume, and then read Hitchens and Shawcross for comparison.

(He mentions at one point that Kissinger was on a committee with Paul Myron Linebarger – which made my heart skip a beat – and then went on to say that Linebarger was a science fiction writer. He was, indeed, under the name Cordwainer Smith. But I suspect that Fergusen never read any of Cordwainer Smith’s works, or he’d have mentioned that this certainly was science fiction written by a diplomat, and was weird by comparison with other writers in that weird profession. An ordinary reader, coming upon this in Fergusen’s book, might get the impression that Linebarger was writing Flash Gordon stuff.)

Speaking of weird science fiction, I finished reading Olaf Stapledon’s _First and Last Men_, a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. I have trouble calling it a “novel” – it has no real characters or plot, unless you view the human race as the main character and its fate over a great length of time as the plot. This book was widely read and very influential, mainly because of Stapledon’s creativity and imagination.His Martians are a very alien race, and in Earth’s encounters with the inhabitants of Venus, it is the Earthmen who play the part of Aliens Invading Because Their Homeworld is Dying.

It’s hard not to point out quotes to others, or to see possible influences on later authors. For instance, this bit about America after a major European War (set about the time of WWII):

> [@](#):
>
> …the United Stares openly claimed to be custodians of the whole planet. Universally feared and envied, universally respected for their enterprise, yet for their complacency very widely despised, the Americans were rapidly changing the whole character of man’s existence. By this time every human being throughout the planet made use of American products, and there was no region where American capital did not support local labour. Moreover the American press, gramophone, radio, cinematograph, and televisor ceaselessly drenched the planet with American thought. …What wonder, then, that America, even while she was despised, irresistibly moulded the whole human race. This, perhaps, would not have mattered, had America been able to give of her very rare best. but inevitably only her worst could be propagated. Only the most vulgar traits of her potentially great people could get through into the minds of foreigners by means of these crude instruments. And so, by the floods of poison issuing from this people’s baser members, the whole world, and with it the nobler parts of America herself, were irrevocably corrupted.

As accurate a summing up of _Keeping up with the Kardasians_ as I’ve ever seen.

Seriously, I could swear I’ve read similar diatribes about American pop culture in real life.

On a completely different note, have a look at the description of the first Martian invasion:

> [@](#):
>
> On the mountain a vast swarm of the cloudlets was collecting, and creeping down the precipice and snow-fields into a high glacier valley. At a certain point, where the glacier dropped steeply to a lower level the advance guard slowed down and stopped…In half an hour the whole sky was once more clear, save for normal clouds, but up[on the glacier lay what might almost have been an exceptionally dark solid-looking thunder-cloud, save for its green tinge and seething motion…Then it moved forward again, and passed over the cliffy end of the glacier into the pine-clad valley

The cloud passes through a village and its effects are felt. Later, some investigated the cloud and are torn apart by what seem to be tentacles.  
If you’re of my age, you can’t help but be reminded of the 1950s film _The Crawling Eye_ (originally _The Trollenberg Terror_), which started out as a British TV serial. In the manner of many of these, it got remade as a movie, starring Forrest Tuicker (who was kind of the 1950s British SF movie go-to tough American), featuring Humans Possesed by Aliens (another british 1950s TV SciFi staple – but not in Stapledon’s book), and fgeaturing Really Ooky sorta octapoid tentacle monsters (also not in Stapledon)\*  
Finally, the Eighteenth Men near the end remind me irrersistably of Heinlein’s “Old Ones” Martians in _Stranger in a Strange Land_. They’re not “dead”, but they do live for extremely long periods of time, and don’t hurry, There is a culture of the Young that is tolerated and appreciated for what it is, but the Older Ones have their own culture and arts. They don’t really have a word for “religion”. They lead Spartan lives of contemplation, with few ornaments., but they compose art works that combine feelings telepathically. They are in telepathic communication with each other. They live on a different planet than Earth, they die when they decide to, and then their friends and family consume the body.

\*I’ve long had the feeling that the overwhelminmgly icky 1950s British monsters were disliked not because they wrre icky, but because they weren’t British. I observe that the British TV science fiction alien that wasn’t icky or disliked, and who appeared in the early 1960s, was Doctor Who, who undoubtedly, despite being an alien, _was_ British.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 9, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/24 "2016-02-09T03:19:35Z")

</div>

> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> I finished the first volume of Niall Ferguson’s biography _Henry Kissinger 1923-1968: The Idealist_. It’s a good read, meticulously researched, and tries to give a sense of the era as well. The title is an obvious poke at all those who pigeonholed Kissinger as a Pragmatist. He makes his case at considerable length, but I think more people would say that they thought of Kissinger as a pragmatist based on what he did \* after becoming National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State)…

Does he discuss at any length Nixon and Kissinger allegedly torpedoing, through back channels, LBJ’s Vietnam peace initiative in 1968?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 9, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/25 "2016-02-09T12:18:35Z")

</div>

> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Does he discuss at any length Nixon and Kissinger allegedly torpedoing, through back channels, LBJ’s Vietnam peace initiative in 1968?

Quite a bit. Ferguson spends a lot of time working to show that the allegations of Kissinger leaking details to the other side, as Hitchens and Hersh claim, has little to support it, and much against it. I’m not familiar with the arguments of the anti-Kissinger side, so I can’t comment on the controversy in any detail, but Ferguson makes a good argument.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 10, 2016, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/26 "2016-02-10T05:01:13Z")

</div>

Interesting - thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/27 "2016-02-10T08:32:17Z")

</div>

Just started reading _The Ocean at the End of the Lane_ by Neil Gaiman. Not sure it’s my kind of book but it was recommended to me, so I’m giving it a go.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 10, 2016, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/28 "2016-02-10T15:23:42Z")

</div>

> [@jabiru](#):
>
> Just started reading _The Ocean at the End of the Lane_ by Neil Gaiman. Not sure it’s my kind of book but it was recommended to me, so I’m giving it a go.

I loved it, but I do admit it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/29 "2016-02-10T16:32:40Z")

</div>

I have been embarrassingly bad at finding time to read lately. Been on _The Sot-Weed Factor_ for months, but I do love the book.

> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> Today I started [Cloud Atlas](http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454422538&sr=1-1&keywords=cloud+atlas) by David Mitchell. Reserving judgement, but I’m liking it more than I expected to.

Loved that book, and actually really liked the movie, too. The book really picks up and starts to make a lot more sense in the 2nd half. Very creatively structured.

I missed last month’s thread, but wow, it’s been 3 years since Khadaji passed away? Doesn’t seem like it. Thanks for keeping this thread going.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/30 "2016-02-10T18:58:49Z")

</div>

> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> Posted this in the January thread. I’m blaming **hogarth**! 😉
> 
> ```
> I read about 60 pages worth of [A Head Full of Ghosts](http://www.amazon.com/Head-Full-Ghosts-Novel/dp/0062363239/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454422358&sr=1-1&keywords=head+full+of+ghosts) by Paul Tremblay before tossing it aside. It's got all kinds of good reviews, even from Stephen King (!), but I just found it a hot mess.
> 
> ```
> 
> Today I started [Cloud Atlas](http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454422538&sr=1-1&keywords=cloud+atlas) by David Mitchell. Reserving judgement, but I’m liking it more than I expected to.   
> [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/images/buttons/quote.gif](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=19067983)

I’m about halfway through Head Full Of Ghosts and am ready to toss it aside. It’s a shame, I really wanted to like it.

Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books, and one of the few I started re-reading immediately after I finished.

One new book this month is Adam Roberts [The Thing Itself](http://www.amazon.com/Thing-Itself-Adam-Roberts-ebook/dp/B00SRVA78Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455130739&sr=1-1&keywords=the+thing+itself).

An Arctic science station, Kant, The Fermi Paradox and possibly an alien. Can’t wait.

New to me this month is The Orphan Masters Son. I started this about a year ago and put it down. Restarted the read this month.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/31 "2016-02-10T19:30:01Z")

</div>

Those of you who like _Cloud Atlas_ may wish to check out Italo Calvino’s _If on a winter’s night a traveler_.

According to the author, _Cloud Atlas_ was, at least in part, his response to the Calvino classic - the odd structure (in which each section is later completed) in part a reaction to Calvino’s book, in which there are multiple sections that are _not_ completed.

> **[Guardian book club: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/12/book-club-mitchell-cloud-atlas)**
>
> Week three: David Mitchell on writing Cloud Atlas

> [@](#):
>
> I’d had an idea for a polyphonic “Russian Doll” novel ever since Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller had wowed me at uni in the late 80s. Calvino’s book is made of interrupted narratives which are never returned to – my idea was to write a novel whose narratives would be returned to, and completed in reverse order.

Calvino’s one of my favorites from way back - particularly _If on a winter’s night a traveler_ and _Invisible Cities_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 10, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/32 "2016-02-10T19:59:06Z")

</div>

> [@Malthus](#):
>
> Those of you who like _Cloud Atlas_ may wish to check out Italo Calvino’s _If on a winter’s night a traveler_.
> 
> According to the author, _Cloud Atlas_ was, at least in part, his response to the Calvino classic - the odd structure (in which each section is later completed) in part a reaction to Calvino’s book, in which there are multiple sections that are _not_ completed.
> 
> [Guardian book club: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell | David Mitchell | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/12/book-club-mitchell-cloud-atlas)
> 
> Calvino’s one of my favorites from way back - particularly _If on a winter’s night a traveler_ and _Invisible Cities_.

Some stories in the complete classic _1001 Nights_ are written in the form of nested stories, up to seven “levels” deep.

In his masterful _Godel, Escher, Bach_ Douglas Hofstadter writes a chapter in this way, deliberately not “completing” the last level, so the chapter ends up not on the level it started at.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/33 "2016-02-10T20:06:25Z")

</div>

> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Some stories in the complete classic _1001 Nights_ are written in the form of nested stories, up to seven “levels” deep.
> 
> In his masterful _Godel, Escher, Bach_ Douglas Hofstadter writes a chapter in this way, deliberately not “completing” the last level, so the chapter ends up not on the level it started at.

Heh, I just last month gave a copy of _Godel, Escher, Bach_ to my kid’s piano teacher.

She was telling me offhand at a party after a recital how she loved both Bach and Escher, and how she was interested in the science of consciousness, but had never even heard of this book!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grrlbrarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrlbrarian/32/4048_2.png) [@Grrlbrarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrlbrarian)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/34 "2016-02-10T21:56:47Z")

</div>

I finally finished **[A Confederacy of Dunces](http://www.amazon.com/Confederacy-Dunces-John-Kennedy-Toole/dp/0802130208)**. I find the reviews more interesting than the book, in no small part since much is made of the originality of the characters and the true-to-life dialogue. I don’t know if it’s the gap between its publication and today, but I didn’t find the dialogue extraordinary. Perhaps written dialogue in novels has simply gotten more realistic generally since the early 1960s when this was written? Nor did I find the characters all that original; Ignatius and Myrna Minkoff, in particular, felt like compilations of a few people I knew from grad school in English. Lots of comments in reviews, professional and amateur, make much of how laugh-out-loud funny this book is. Maybe it’s because Ignatius and Myrna reminded me too forcibly about wankers in grad school, but again, didn’t even chuckle, let alone laugh aloud.

I did enjoy the feel of the French Quarter, which Toole seemed to capture well. It seems to me like the Quarter generates larger-than-life personalities and nurtures eccentricity, from what little contact I’ve had with it, and that was all abundantly drawn here. So THAT, at least, I could appreciate.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/35 "2016-02-10T22:15:43Z")

</div>

> [@DZedNConfused](#):
>
> I loved it, but I do admit it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

I’ve decided it’s not my cup of tea. I’m not a fan of fantasy but this reads like YA and it just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 10, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/36 "2016-02-10T23:47:24Z")

</div>

I finished **The Princess and the pirates** by John Maddox Roberts. Not one of his best but a decent read, albeit a little dialog heavy.

Am now about 50 pages into **Whispers underground** by Ben Aaronovitch. I love the narrative voice, it feels like a good natter with an old friend.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/37 "2016-02-10T23:54:39Z")

</div>

Finished Kon-Tiki, which was a good read. I’ve now started **A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca** , by Andre Resendez, which was recommended by another Doper. So far, it’s grabbed me; but I’m a fan of books about exploration and survival, so no surprise there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/38 "2016-02-11T17:05:49Z")

</div>

Finished _Wizard and Glass_, by Stephen King, volume IV in his Dark Tower series. Very good. More of a story within a story as we learn more of Roland’s beginnings. That finishes the four-volume set the wife gave me for my birthday last year, but there are still three more volumes in the series. Our library not having those, I’ve gone ahead and bought them in a bookstore. But I think I’ll take a short break from the series and read something else first.

So next up is _The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King_, by James Patterson and Martin Dugard. I found it in my library’s Nonfiction section. It’s a “nonfiction thriller.” The authors have compiled the evidence and wrote a story around what is known of King tut’s life and death.

On a side note, I recently learned King’s _11/22/63_ has been made into a miniseries in the US. Not sure if it’s aired yet.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 12, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/39 "2016-02-12T15:14:03Z")

</div>

I finally finished _Cloud Atlas_ and thought it was pretty good. Just reading all the reviews about how wonderfully clever and complicated it was scared me away from it for a long time, but I found it very engrossing and not at all difficult. Out of the six stories, I liked Luisa Rey’s the least. Sonmi, Zachry, and Frobisher’s sections are in a three-way tie for my favorite. Guess I will go now and look for _The Thousand Autumns_…

In the meantime, I’m starting on the long-awaited [Honky Tonk Samurai](http://www.amazon.com/Honky-Tonk-Samurai-Hap-Leonard/dp/0316329401/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455289474&sr=1-1&keywords=honky+tonk+samurai) by Joe Lansdale. So far, I’m underwhelmed. The writing is stilted and I have yet to get a laugh out of it. Well, hell, I love ya anyway, Joe.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/40 "2016-02-12T15:24:06Z")

</div>

I’m rereading **Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep** to see who is right, Ridley Scott or my sketchy memory. I’ve read the book a couple of times over the years and I admit, I’m not always the most attentive reader, but if Philip K. Dick suggested in the book that Deckard was a replicant, I totally missed it. Either way, I’m enjoying the ride.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636.md?page=1)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636.md?page=3)
