# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - March 2016 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591 "2016-03-01T02:08:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/21 "2016-03-04T00:54:47Z")
Doe it make you pine for the sane old days of Congress? ---
**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 4, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/22 "2016-03-04T02:00:34Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished _The March_, by EL Doctorow. A novel about Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas during the Civil War. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it for Civil War buffs. Unlike what I expected, it starts immediately _after_ the burning of Atlanta and covers the march from there to the end of the war. A couple of oddities though. He seems to have borrowed from Cormac McCarthy in that he never uses quotation marks. (Or did McCarthy borrow from him?) [1] There is also the vaguest notion that Lincoln may have suffered from Marfan syndrome, but wasn’t that discredited long before the book was published in 2005? [2] Doctorow never says the name of the syndrome, and anyone who has never heard of that theory would not know what he was hinting at. He does eventually say maybe his appearance is due to the rigors of being a wartime president after all, but why hint at it?.. 1 - McCarthy did it before Doctorow, I believe. 2 - Yes. That theory was in vogue for awhile but is widely discounted now, from what I’ve read. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/23 "2016-03-04T10:54:25Z")
The only other Doctorow I’ve read is _Billy Bathgate_. That was a long time ago, but if he omitted quotation marks in that one, it did not leave an impression on me. Could be a style choice just for this one novel. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/24 "2016-03-04T15:49:30Z")
Nevermind…this belonged in a different thread. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/25 "2016-03-04T15:52:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I finished reading **A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca** and **A Pirate of Exquisite Mind** (about explorer and privateer William Dampier). Both were very good accounts of explorers you don’t hear much about. Now I’m casting about for another good read in the exploration/survival genres; I admit to an addiction to stories of people surviving (or not) impossible odds and travails. Not easy, as I’ve read a lot of them. I’m also not averse to a well-written history or biography Ooh! Ooh! Putting both on my ‘want to read’ list, although I’m guessing Dampier will go before Cabeza de Vaca. 🙂 Have you read **[Skeletons of the Zahara](http://www.amazon.com/Skeletons-Zahara-True-Story-Survival/dp/0316159352/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457106670&sr=1-1&keywords=skeletons+of+the+zahara)** yet? **[Long Walk](http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-True-Story-Freedom/dp/1592289444/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457106693&sr=1-1&keywords=long+walk+rawicz)** by Slavomir Rawicz? ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/26 "2016-03-04T15:58:39Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I finished _Tooth and Claw_, by Jo Walton. This was a kick, it’s a book about dragons, and it’s a riff on a Jane Austen-type plot – there is a death, there is a family squabble over an inheritance, we have young girls who may or may not be eligible to marry, there is social intrigue and secret identities. And all the characters are dragons, so in the middle of all of this, they are laying eggs and breathing fire and eating livestock. Also wearing hats. > > I thought it was adorable, although I think it helps if you go in with an understanding of how a Regency novel is set up to work. **Delphica** , have you ever read Trollope’s [Framley Parsonage](http://www.amazon.com/Framley-Parsonage-Penguin-English-Library/dp/0140432132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457107051&sr=8-1&keywords=framley+parsonage), to which Tooth and Claw bears affinities (except Trollope uses humans, natch)? I have not - debating putting it in the TBR pile. Walton swears she’s not going to write a sequel to Tooth and Claw, despite the fact that she’s named this won’t-be book Those Who Favor Fire and published the first chapter on her website [here](http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/books/tooth-and-claw/those-who-favor-fire/). ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/27 "2016-03-04T17:26:38Z")
> [@Grrlbrarian](#): > > **Delphica** , have you ever read Trollope’s [Framley Parsonage](http://www.amazon.com/Framley-Parsonage-Penguin-English-Library/dp/0140432132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457107051&sr=8-1&keywords=framley+parsonage), to which Tooth and Claw bears affinities (except Trollope uses humans, natch)? I have not - debating putting it in the TBR pile. Walton swears she’s not going to write a sequel to Tooth and Claw, despite the fact that she’s named this won’t-be book Those Who Favor Fire and published the first chapter on her website [here](http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/books/tooth-and-claw/those-who-favor-fire/). I have not, the only Trollope I have read is _Rachel Ray_. I’ve never considered _Framley Parsonage_ because it is part of a series (so it seems like a commitment), but it’s the same series that has _Barchester Towers_, which I’ve been told is one of the best ones. So maybe I should think about tackling it … Thanks for the link for the chapter-of-not-a-book! ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/28 "2016-03-04T17:42:30Z")
> [@Grrlbrarian](#): > > Ooh! Ooh! Putting both on my ‘want to read’ list, although I’m guessing Dampier will go before Cabeza de Vaca. 🙂 Have you read **[Skeletons of the Zahara](http://www.amazon.com/Skeletons-Zahara-True-Story-Survival/dp/0316159352/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457106670&sr=1-1&keywords=skeletons+of+the+zahara)** yet? **[Long Walk](http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-True-Story-Freedom/dp/1592289444/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457106693&sr=1-1&keywords=long+walk+rawicz)** by Slavomir Rawicz? Yeah, read them both. There is some doubt as to whether Rawicz’s book is factual, including an investigation by the BBC that determined it was a fraud. But a good read, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/29 "2016-03-04T17:59:05Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I finished reading **A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca** and **A Pirate of Exquisite Mind** (about explorer and privateer William Dampier). Both were very good accounts of explorers you don’t hear much about. Now I’m casting about for another good read in the exploration/survival genres; I admit to an addiction to stories of people surviving (or not) impossible odds and travails. Not easy, as I’ve read a lot of them. I’m also not averse to a well-written history or biography I don’t know if this is too much of a stretch, it’s maybe at the intersection of exploring and biography … but I enjoyed [The Lady and the Panda](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002361L6Q/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1). ---
**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:** [March 5, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/30 "2016-03-05T01:08:23Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I’ve never considered _Framley Parsonage_ because it is part of a series (so it seems like a commitment), but it’s the same series that has _Barchester Towers_, which I’ve been told is one of the best ones. So maybe I should think about tackling it … For what it’s worth, most of the Barchester novels can easily be read as a stand-alone book, with the possible exception of The Last Chronicle of Barset. You might be missing out on a little bit of back story for some of the minor side characters, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/31 "2016-03-05T04:10:44Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > For what it’s worth, most of the Barchester novels can easily be read as a stand-alone book, with the possible exception of The Last Chronicle of Barset. You might be missing out on a little bit of back story for some of the minor side characters, but that’s about it. Good to know, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/32 "2016-03-05T11:39:11Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I finished reading **A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca** and **A Pirate of Exquisite Mind** (about explorer and privateer William Dampier). Both were very good accounts of explorers you don’t hear much about. Now I’m casting about for another good read in the exploration/survival genres; I admit to an addiction to stories of people surviving (or not) impossible odds and travails. Not easy, as I’ve read a lot of them. I’m also not averse to a well-written history or biography I found the translation of the Cabeza de Vaca book that I read to be very dry and a bit of a plod (ha!) to get through, despite it’s content. Do you remember which translation you read, and how readable it was? The Dampier biography was good, too, but I remember reading one of Dampier’s own books a couple of times when I was still at school and enjoying it a lot. No longer remember which one it was though. You might like to read the original version of his travels! You could maybe try _The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek_ by Barry Cunliffe. It’s about an early Greek geographer and explorer who ventured beyond the Mediterranean to northern Europe, including the UK. Hard facts about exactly where he reached are few, but it’s a great look at that part of the world before the Romans got there! Or _Before the Heroes Came_ by T. H. Baughman, about efforts to explore Antarctica in the 1890s and very early 1900s, before the time of the epic expeditions of Scott and Amundsen. Personally, I’m still reading _Monday begins on Saturday_ by the Strugatsky Brothers. It’s about life in a northern Soviet Institute where magic and witchcraft are researched. Good, but slow going. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/33 "2016-03-05T15:35:18Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > I found the translation of the Cabeza de Vaca book that I read to be very dry and a bit of a plod (ha!) to get through, despite it’s content. Do you remember which translation you read, and how readable it was? It wasn’t a translation of Cabeza de Vaca’s own writing but rather a [book](http://www.amazon.com/Land-So-Strange-Journey-Cabeza/dp/0465068413/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457191946&sr=8-1&keywords=a+land+so+strange) about his travail, written by someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/34 "2016-03-05T19:48:13Z")
Just finished Huckleberry Finn. I can’t say anything about it that hasn’t been said a thousand times before except that I, personally, thought it was absolutely brilliant. The various idiolects took a little getting used to, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment one bit. I think it’s one of the best books I’ve read in years. Five stars. I’m also mid-way through Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov, and I’m not really enjoying it so far. I’ve loved every other Nabokov I’ve read but this one isn’t doing it for me at all. It’s beautifully written, of course, but all the fine prose on Earth can’t save a book that’s little more than a series of vignettes about an elderly nerd bumbling his way through his boring life. I’m going to finish it, but I’d only give it two stars at the moment, and that’s purely because it’s so elegantly written. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/35 "2016-03-07T13:55:51Z")
Down to the last few pages of _The Wright Brothers_ by David McCullough. It’s like all McCullough books, not a ‘deep’ historical tome, but presenting the characters and the times in an accurate and entertaining manner. I think sometimes we forget just how massive things changed when it was proved (and there were skeptics, some quite important and smart) that man could accomplish powered and controlled flight. I found it fascinating how these two brothers, neither college-educated or with engineering degrees, solved so many basic issues and came up with so much. It’s also fascinating to read about their success (especially Wilbur’s) in France. We sometimes forget than Europe at the time was the center of the world, not the United States, and their successes in France made them world celebrities. All-in-all, a good read about two rather unique and sometimes forgotten heroes of aviation. Note: I still remember the first time I stepped into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC. There hanging was the Wright Flyer (1903) and directly below it was the Apollo 11 capsule (1969). From Kitty Hawk to the Moon in the span of one lifetime…still boggles the mind. ---
**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 7, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/36 "2016-03-07T14:47:52Z")
Finished [Bluescreen](http://www.amazon.com/Bluescreen-Mirador-Dan-Wells/dp/006234787X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457361201&sr=8-1&keywords=bluescreen+dan+wells) by Dan Wells, a YA novel about a team of girl gamers who are trying to stop the spread of a drug/computer virus that has infected virtual reality. And in this future, everyone is plugged in constantly. It was a well done and fast moving story, but I kept thinking of that quote about sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic. The heroine was basically able to perform any miracles by just hacking the nearest device. There were a lot of good things going on with this book and I would recommend it, although I’m not sure I will continue the series myself. Began this morning on [The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror](http://www.amazon.com/Rim-Morning-Cosmic-Horror-Classics/dp/1590179064/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457361919&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rim+of+morning) by William Sloane, with a foreword by Stephen King. Saving the foreword for last, as Mr. King said there would be spoilers. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/37 "2016-03-07T15:42:05Z")
Wow! Ive not been getting notifications so I thought we’d all gone on vacation or something! 😃 I finished **Conspiracy in Death** by JD Robb, last week. A more complicated plot than the prior novels but sadly the subplot blew away in the face of Eve and Roarke’s combined awesomeness, but kudos to Robb for trying. Of greater interest to me is the failure of our heroes to recognized their own hypocrisy when Eve is put on departmental suspension pending an investigation and both Eve and Roarke react with shock, anger and “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I/SHE IS? HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME/HER?” and yet be so contemptuous of the same “you don’t rat out your own” attitude in another close knit professional community. It’s wrong to question a cop’s motives but everyone else is fair game apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/38 "2016-03-07T16:06:19Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > Just finished Huckleberry Finn. I can’t say anything about it that hasn’t been said a thousand times before except that I, personally, thought it was absolutely brilliant. The various idiolects took a little getting used to, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment one bit. I think it’s one of the best books I’ve read in years. Five stars. I love Huck Finn, but I thought the book slowed right up in the last bit, when Tom Sawyer showed up, and started thinking up increasingly absurd things for Jim to do. Other than that, it is truly one of the great novels of all time - equal parts funny, uplifting, heartbreaking, and horrifying. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/39 "2016-03-07T16:36:03Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I love Huck Finn, but I thought the book slowed right up in the last bit, when Tom Sawyer showed up, and started thinking up increasingly absurd things for Jim to do. > > Other than that, it is truly one of the great novels of all time - equal parts funny, uplifting, heartbreaking, and horrifying. At least one critic suggested ignoring the rest of the book, after Tom showed up. He felt everything after that points cheapened the work. I read _The Annotated Huckleberry Finn_ a couple of years ago. It was worth it. The footnotes added much to the book, and there’s even a “lost” scene. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591/40 "2016-03-07T16:55:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > At least one critic suggested ignoring the rest of the book, after Tom showed up. He felt everything after that points cheapened the work. > > I read _The Annotated Huckleberry Finn_ a couple of years ago. It was worth it. The footnotes added much to the book, and there’s even a “lost” scene. Heh, I’d love to check that out. My own kid is almost old enough to read this book for the first time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2016-edition/747591.md?page=3)