# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - February 2016 Edition **URL:** \ **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:** 3
**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 12, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/41 "2016-02-12T15:35:24Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > 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. It isn’t in there. And, as I’ve mentioned here before, nobody made that claim when the film first came out in 1982. If he’d really intended it back then, he’d have made an issue of the fact that everyone overlooked an important plot point at the time. That he didn’t indicates to me that it’s an afterthought. ---
**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, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/42 "2016-02-12T16:19:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It isn’t in there. And, as I’ve mentioned here before, nobody made that claim when the film first came out in 1982. If he’d really intended it back then, he’d have made an issue of the fact that everyone overlooked an important plot point at the time. That he didn’t indicates to me that it’s an afterthought. I thought not. Also, as skilled as PKD was at bending perceptions and messing with the reader’s head, surely that idea must have occurred to him when he was writing the thing, …and he rejected it. ---
**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 12, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/43 "2016-02-12T18:44:05Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > I thought not. Also, as skilled as PKD was at bending perceptions and messing with the reader’s head, surely that idea must have occurred to him when he was writing the thing, …and he rejected it. There seemms to be a feeling in Hollywood that PKD’s stories are all about whether things are real or not. And it is true of many PKD stories (“Second Variety”, “The Father-Thing”, etc.) But, ironically it’s NOT true of the very ones that got adapted as movies. The is-he-a-replicant-or-not quandary simply isn’t in _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ Nor is there any suggestion of it in _Minority Report_ (which is vastly different from the film of the same name). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/44 "2016-02-13T02:08:39Z")
I finished reading **The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner** by James Hogg. It was an unusual book and not what I expected; for some reason, I thought it was mostly a dark comedy. It starts humourously enough, with a good-natured, fun-loving young Scottish noble at odds with his half (?) brother, a petty spiteful religious hypocrite (among other colourful Scottish characters). But then it takes a sinister turn – the best way I can describe it is like “Tom Jones” meets “The Shining” as written by Sir Walter Scott. James Hogg’s personal story is interesting, too; he was sort of self-educated and he worked as a farm labourer. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/45 "2016-02-13T21:20:51Z")
I’ve had a terrible cold the last few days and have been feeling very grumpy. I decided to treat myself by ordering a bunch of books on Amazon. They arrived the other day and I’ve been flicking through them. Here’s my first impressions: 1. Hound of the Baskervilles: This. Sucks. I’m about half-way through and I honestly don’t understand how Sherlock Holmes acquired his legendary status given just how poorly his stories are written. Conan-Doyle’s faults as a writer are legion. Every chapter contains extraneous scenes, every paragraph contains extraneous observations, every sentence contains extraneous words. The descriptions are flat and laborious, and if that weren’t enough Doyle cannot do dialogue _at all_. He has the worst tin-ear for how people actually talk that I’ve ever come across. All the characters sound painfully stilted and they all sound _exactly_ the same. The one exception is an American character who sounds painfully stilted and exactly the same until he gets angry, at which point he starts sounding a little like Desperate Dan. Worst of all, I couldn’t care less “whodunnit”. It’s literally the least interesting question in the world to me right now. Every single page is a fucking chore. I’m going to finish it, but mostly out of spite. If it improves, I’ll take it all back, but so far this is cruising for a 1 star. 2. Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari. I’m about 80 pages in and so far I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s basically just a funny and engaging look at the modern dating scene. 3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - I’ll admit, I’ve always been a bit of a snob about the Harry Potter series; the kind of guy who inwardly sneers when he sees adults reading them on the tube. However, I finally decided to give one a go when I realised I was literally the only one of my friends who hasn’t read at least one. Even my friends who perversely boast about not being readers have read them and enjoyed them, so I thought “What the hell? Worst case scenario, it’ll suck and my smug book-snobbish attitude toward them will be validated.” I’m genuinely thrilled to say that I could not have been more wrong. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was an absolute delight from start to finish. I’ve already ordered the next one. Every page had at least one genuinely amusing line, description, or quirky bit of invention, and there’s more than a touch of Roald Dahl about it all, which I very much appreciated. I finished the whole thing in an evening, and learned a valuable lesson about not being a book snob. 5 stars. I also recently finished Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, and I was absolutely blown away by it. Her prose positively glistens, and the characters are so fascinating and finely nuanced I feel I could write their biographies from scratch. I really cared about all of them, and I thought the ending was absolutely devastating. Wharton is basically the anti-Conan Doyle, IMO, and I’m definitely going to read more by her. ---
**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 14, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/46 "2016-02-14T03:41:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It isn’t in there. And, as I’ve mentioned here before, nobody made that claim when the film first came out in 1982. If he’d really intended it back then, he’d have made an issue of the fact that everyone overlooked an important plot point at the time. That he didn’t indicates to me that it’s an afterthought. Agreed. I’ve always thought Ridley Scott was just trying to stir the pot and get people to take another look, and spend another dollar, on yet another version of the movie. > [@Tithonus](#): > > … > > 1. Hound of the Baskervilles: This. Sucks. I’m about half-way through and I honestly don’t understand how Sherlock Holmes acquired his legendary status given just how poorly his stories are written… I must disagree. I’m a big Conan Doyle fan, but his stuff obviously isn’t for everyone. I’m now more halfway through John Winton’s 1967 novel _HMS Leviathan_, about all the problems a new executive officer has on a hard-luck British supercarrier. The XO has a quick temper and snaps at his subordinates every other chapter, it seems, needlessly alienating them. You can see the author intends him to be a sympathetic character, and he really does want what’s best for the ship and its crew, but he’s his own worst enemy. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/47 "2016-02-14T17:52:15Z")
Last book finished: _Death Without Company_, the second Longmire mystery, by Craig Johnson. Currently reading: _Ink and Bone_, YA AH/fantasy by Rachel Caine. Next up: _Lifeboats_, YA fantasy by Diane Duane. ---
**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 14, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/48 "2016-02-14T18:06:53Z")
Well said **Elendil’s Heir** , my father was a HUGE Holmes fan, I practiacally cut my teeth on his books. The writing style is a lot stuffier and more formalt than what’s in vogue these days, but nevertheless still evocative. That said,I can see where it wouldn’t appeal to everyone and honestly, I’m not that fond of _The Hound_ myself, Doyle shines much moreso in short stories, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/49 "2016-02-15T18:18:02Z")
Finished Modern Romance. It’s not bad. Most of it is common sense to anyone under 40 who owns a smartphone. There were some interesting statistics comparing the dating habits of different generations and different nationalities, and there were quite a few funny lines. However, I didn’t think it was particularly revelatory. As I said, most people in this book’s target audience probably know most of this stuff already. 3 stars. I also finished Carry on Jeeves, a short story collection by PG Wodehouse. I really enjoyed it. The stories are all short, simple, elegantly plotted, and vary between moderately and extremely funny. 4 stars. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/50 "2016-02-15T19:25:57Z")
_Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End_, by Atul Gawanda. I’m around halfway and am impressed so far. However, as an official Old Person, it’s a bit depressing. Deals with end-of-life issues and how we do a lousy job of helping people get through it; how medicine is not the right field to escort us through it; etc. I recommend it. He writes very well. I wish he was my doctor. ETA: I see I got this book from **Grrlbrarian** a few months ago, so thanks. ---
**Author:** ![TheSpeculationElucidation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@TheSpeculationElucidation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSpeculationElucidation)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/51 "2016-02-15T23:54:15Z")
Fiction - The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson NonFiction - A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Both are excellent so far. ---
**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 16, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/52 "2016-02-16T02:41:47Z")
Finished _The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King_, by James Patterson and Martin Dugard. A nice read. Mystery writer Patterson – whose books I’ve not read, although I have seen one or two film adaptations – researches the life and death of King Tut and posits a viable murder conspiracy. Two stories in one, jumping back and forth between 14th-century-BC Egypt and Egyptologist Howard Carter’s path in the late 19th and early 20th centuries AD to the discovery of Tut’s tomb. Next up: _Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye: True Stories from the Case Files of Warren Olson_, as told to Stephen Leather. Olson was a real private detective in Bangkok. A Kiwi (New Zealander), Olson has since retired and moved back to New Zealand with his Thai wife and their daughter, but the detective agency he founded, [Thai Private Eye](http://thaiprivateeye.com/), continues to operate. Leather is a local British writer, most famous in Thailand for the true-to-life _Private Dancer_. The only other one of his I’ve read is _Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon_. This book, _Confessions_, contains true stories from Olson’s case files, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent – and the guilty. A blurb from the back cover informs us: “Two-timing bargirls, suspicious spouses and lesbian lovers – it was all in a day’s work for Bangkok Private Eye Warren Olson.” ---
**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 17, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/53 "2016-02-17T13:14:12Z")
Finished the Hap & Leonard novel, _Honky Tonk Samurai_, and gosh. That wasn’t good. It’s eleventh in the series, which has been pretty fun overall, and I like Lansdale, so I’m just going to forget about this one. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/54 "2016-02-17T22:10:31Z")
I finished Hound of the Baskervilles, and am adamantly sticking with my 1 star rating. I absolutely detested it. I thought it was migraine-inducingly boring, utterly bereft of suspense, and written in a style so lumpen and stuffy it defies parody. I would recommend it only to my enemies, and even then as a matter of last resort. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/55 "2016-02-18T07:28:52Z")
I’ve just started reading _No Safe House_ by Linwood Barclay. Unlike all the previous novels I’ve read, I’m not getting into this one. I’m usually a big fan of Barclay’s books, so I hope this one improves soon. ---
**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 18, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/56 "2016-02-18T13:13:28Z")
Started today on a horror anthology edited by Ellen Datlow, [The Monstrous](http://www.amazon.com/Monstrous-Peter-Straub/dp/1616962062/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455801184&sr=1-1&keywords=the+monstrous). So far, not appreciating the stories much; they are, in the immortal words of Moe Szyslak, “weird for the sake of being weird”. However, I don’t like to start a new novel close to the end of the week, so I’ll push on a bit further. ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/57 "2016-02-18T20:32:00Z")
I just read Jim Shepard’s The Book of Aron, about a young boy in the Warsaw ghetto. It is nearly impossible to write a book about the Holocaust that offers anything we haven’t seen before, but this book manages it. I found it very powerful. Janusz Korczak appears as a character. I generally don’t care for the technique of fictionalizing historical figures, but in this case I think it works. I imagine this book will stay with me for a long time. ---
**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 18, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/58 "2016-02-18T20:39:38Z")
Still enjoying John Lawton’s _HMS Leviathan_, although the lead character, the XO of a British supercarrier, is more and more obviously a snob and a jerk. Looks like he’s headed for a fall, and he’ll probably deserve it when it happens. I’ve been browsing through J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous collection of essays and research fragments, _The Peoples of Middle-earth_, edited by his son Christopher. Some of it’s interesting; more of it is, I have to say, rather tedious. I’ve also begun the audiobook of Robert Harris’s 1992 alt-hist novel _Fatherland_. It’s set in April 1964, as Nazi Germany prepares to celebrate Hitler’s 75th birthday on the eve of his summit meeting with President Kennedy (that’s Joe Sr., not John). An SS criminal investigator looks into the puzzling death of an aging Nazi bigwig and stumbles upon a conspiracy. I read this book years ago and it’s impressing me anew as a great police procedural with a fascinating setting. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Does [Niall Ferguson] discuss at any length Nixon and Kissinger allegedly torpedoing, through back channels, LBJ’s Vietnam peace initiative in 1968? > [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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. This might interest you - conservative columnist George Will believes it really happened: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-nixons-long-shadow/2014/08/06/fad8c00c-1ccb-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-nixons-long-shadow/2014/08/06/fad8c00c-1ccb-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html) ---
**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 18, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/59 "2016-02-18T20:49:45Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Still enjoying John Lawton’s _HMS Leviathan_, although the lead character, the XO of a British supercarrier, is more and more obviously a snob and a jerk. Looks like he’s headed for a fall, and he’ll probably deserve it when it happens. > > I’ve been browsing through J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous collection of essays and research fragments, _The Peoples of Middle-earth_, edited by his son Christopher. Some of it’s interesting; more of it is, I have to say, rather tedious. > > I’ve also begun the audiobook of Robert Harris’s 1992 alt-hist novel _Fatherland_. It’s set in April 1964, as Nazi Germany prepares to celebrate Hitler’s 75th birthday on the eve of his summit meeting with President Kennedy (that’s Joe Sr., not John). An SS criminal investigator looks into the puzzling death of an aging Nazi bigwig and stumbles upon a conspiracy. I read this book years ago and it’s impressing me anew as a great police procedural with a fascinating setting. > > This might interest you - conservative columnist George Will believes it really happened: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-nixons-long-shadow/2014/08/06/fad8c00c-1ccb-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-nixons-long-shadow/2014/08/06/fad8c00c-1ccb-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html) As I say, I’m not familiar with the details, so I have to withhold judgment. But I will point out that the name “Kissinger” doesn’t even appear in what you have linked, and the “it” that George Will would seem to be discussing is Nixon’s supposed interference with the Vietnam peace conference, and says nothing at all about Kissinger’s involvement in that. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636/60 "2016-02-19T20:16:59Z")
Just finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I continue to be impressed with just how charming and fun the series is, although I’ve still got a long way to go until I finish it. As skeptical as I initially was, I now think finally choosing to read it is shaping up to be one of the best reading decisions I’ve made in years. I’ve just ordered Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and I can hardly wait 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2016-edition/744636.md?page=4)