# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread - October 2014 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986 "2014-09-30T17:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [October 13, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/61 "2014-10-13T19:00:10Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > This might be of interest, **koeeoaddi** : ["Jane Austen and the Navy" - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=542103) Thanks, **Elendil’s Heir** , I’m on it! ---
**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 15, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/62 "2014-10-15T13:14:10Z")
Well, I finished _Small Gods_ and thought it was only okay. And now I am completely out of stuff to read that I don’t already own! Fortunately the library should be coming through for me later today. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/63 "2014-10-15T14:43:44Z")
Right now, I’m in the mioddle of Erskine Childers old (1903) espionage novel _ **The Riddle of the Sands.** _ The story itself isn’t that interesting, but the narrator is very amusing. ---
**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 15, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/64 "2014-10-15T15:14:15Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Well, I finished _Small Gods_ and thought it was only okay. > > And now I am completely out of stuff to read that I don’t already own! Fortunately the library should be coming through for me later today. Yeah, not one of his most memorable…☹ I’m giving up on Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series, I just can’t like the protagonist, Gabriel. And the fact that ALL the Arabs(and most of the Eurpeans) are bad guys and ALL the Jews/Israelis are good guys wears on my sense of gray. Not to mention the books are so self defeating: an Arab kills some Jews, the jews kill the Arab: wash rinse repeat. There just never feels like it’s doing any good. (My apologies to any Israeli or Arab dopers if this came off as offensive, it wasn’t my intent and I know the political situation over there is incredibly complex.) I’m going to go read **Halloween Tree** by Ray Bradbury. ---
**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 15, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/65 "2014-10-15T15:26:31Z")
I was sure I’d read _Halloween Tree_, but just now realized I hadn’t! And my library actually has a copy right now. _snag_ ---
**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 15, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/66 "2014-10-15T16:12:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I was sure I’d read _Halloween Tree_, but just now realized I hadn’t! And my library actually has a copy right now. _snag_ Twinners! hahahaha ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/67 "2014-10-15T16:22:12Z")
I’ve been absorbed by C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series lately, which started off rather slow and dull but has gotten much better. I’m binge-reading them, which I usually avoid for fear of burnout. I have book 9, _Deliverer_, queued up next. I did pause to read Lev Grossman’s _The Magicians_, which I have mixed feelings about. It’s very well written, and while it really is sort of like Harry Potter for adults, that worked for me better than I thought it would. Once our hero finishes matriculating at the pseudo-Hogwarts and travels to pseudo-Narnia the plot becomes problematic, but I think I like the author’s cynical look at children’s fantasy novels. I didn’t dislike the protagonist, as some readers do. I have the second book lined up. I also tried to read Neil Gaiman’s _American Gods_, but I gave up after about 100 pages. I know everyone loves this, but it’s just not my cup of tea. I don’t usually like dreamy, surrealistic stuff, and there’s something about the heroic prose style that’s often used with mythology/folk-tale stories that turns me off. I have a copy of Jo Walton’s collection of essays, _What Makes This Book So Great_. I’ve already read some of them in her columns on [Tor.com](http://Tor.com). She’s read tons and tons of sci-fi and fantasy, especially older stuff, and I have picked up many a book on her recommendation. ---
**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 15, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/68 "2014-10-15T18:05:02Z")
I didn’t like **American Gods** either. it was too all over the place and felt like an excuse to America bash, in all honesty. and the end outright sucked, i remember closing the book and saying “The fuck was that all about?” ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/69 "2014-10-15T21:41:33Z")
I started reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior a couple of days ago. Hate it completely. The protagonist is unbelievable and whiny. I want to punch her in the throat. The climate-change angle is cloying and pathetically obvious, and really preachy. About ready to put this one in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/70 "2014-10-16T10:27:33Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I didn’t like **American Gods** either. it was too all over the place and felt like an excuse to America bash, in all honesty. and the end outright sucked, i remember closing the book and saying “The fuck was that all about?” It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember I didn’t like it, either. I find most Neil Gaiman novels disappointing, though I just read the short **Ocean at the End of the Lane** and I liked it. Maybe because it is so short. In honor of October, I thought I’d read some of the vampire stuff that has been languishing on the shelves. However, it turns out that I am horribly bored with vampires. I would have enjoyed Mira Kiraly’s **Mina: the Dracula Story Continues** had I read it 20 years ago, but now it seems like the same old rehashing of Victorian oppression of women and women’s passion. Though I thoroughly enjoyed Freda Warrington’s **Elfland** , and thus was looking forward to **A Taste of Blood Wine** , I just can’t get into it. So I moved on to **Thorn Jack** , Katherine Harbour’s take on Tam Lin in the present day. I very much liked Pamela Dean’s **Tam Lin** and Diana Wynne Jone’s **Hemlock and Fire** , so it will have to do very well to compete with them. So far, so good. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/71 "2014-10-16T10:30:11Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > It’s not that one, but very much from the same era. > > The cover text on mine says: > > \*Brave, aggressive, tough, proud, and highly sexed, Theseus faces danger after danger and overcomes them all. > > His adventures will take you into a world of primitive orgies, sparkling jewels and gleaming bodies – and with Theseus you will live through the hot fights and swift passionate loves of pagan times.\* That must be why I liked it so much when I read it in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/72 "2014-10-16T12:28:02Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I didn’t like **American Gods** either. it was too all over the place and felt like an excuse to America bash, in all honesty. and the end outright sucked, i remember closing the book and saying “The fuck was that all about?” Thank you. All these years I thought I was the only one who didn’t think _American Gods_ was the second coming of great literature. I’d rather re-read the American section in _Martin Chuzzlewit_ three times in a row than Gaiman’s ramblings. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/73 "2014-10-18T02:42:10Z")
Finished _Silas Marner_, by George Eliot. A pleasant little story. Enjoyed it. That was my first Eliot, and it makes me look forward to reading her _Middlemarch_. But first, next up is _Zuleika Dobson_, by Max Beerbohm. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/74 "2014-10-18T03:26:28Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I didn’t like **American Gods** either. it was too all over the place and felt like an excuse to America bash, in all honesty. and the end outright sucked, i remember closing the book and saying “The fuck was that all about?” I’ve tried to read it twice and never got more than 25% into it. Glad to hear I wasn’t missing anything. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/75 "2014-10-18T04:38:02Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > But I am much happier with the characterization in book 2. Lirael and Sam are great, beautifully drawn, and flawed in all the right ways. IMO, Sam is well drawn if the intent was to draw an insufferable whiny little prat who makes me skip his chapters when re-reading the books. Seriously, that guy is just… Ugh. The Disreputable Dog, OTOH, is the greatest thing ever. Today I read, from cover to cover, Steven Brust’s newest Vlad Taltos book, Hawk. A delightful romp, with all of the characters I’ve grown to love over the last twenty-plus years of reading this series, but a bit sad as well–we are clearly entering the endgame for this series, and it’s sad to think it’s going to end some day. Until then, though, I’ll read and love every installment (other than Athyra, which while important for the long plot, was hot garbage and the only one I’ve never returned to). Steve Brust is a guy who actually put the line “What foul sorcery is this?” into his novel (and the reply, “Pretty standard foul sorcery. Nothing special.”); I hope he never ever stops writing. Next up, I’m waiting on my copy of McIlvanney on Football to arrive. An expat Brit friend posted a few quotes from Hugh McIlvanney on Facebook and I was intrigued; I’m now eagerly looking forward to reading his works on the beautiful game. I’m also engaged in some sort of trench warfare stalemate with the first volume of Churchill’s history of the First World War; while it is often brilliant and filled with Churchillian language, it’s also very, very long. I’ll finish it eventually. Also, hi! For reasons, I’ve been away from these threads for a bit; I’m back now. ---
**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 18, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/76 "2014-10-18T12:45:40Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Also, hi! For reasons, I’ve been away from these threads for a bit; I’m back now. Hey! Welcome Back! I started **Halloween Tree** Wednesday, but since it’s anime con weekend, I won’t get to it again until Monday. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/77 "2014-10-20T00:52:34Z")
So, the “View of Middle Earth From Space” thread inspired me to pick up the English translation of The Last Ringbearer, which interprets LOTR as “history told by the victors”, so to speak. I’ll be starting it tonight before bed, so we’ll see how it goes–I find the concept quite interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Danja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@Danja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danja)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/78 "2014-10-20T01:15:18Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I did pause to read Lev Grossman’s _The Magicians_, which I have mixed feelings about. It’s very well written, and while it really is sort of like Harry Potter for adults, that worked for me better than I thought it would. Once our hero finishes matriculating at the pseudo-Hogwarts and travels to pseudo-Narnia the plot becomes problematic, but I think I like the author’s cynical look at children’s fantasy novels. I didn’t dislike the protagonist, as some readers do. I have the second book lined up. I was a latecomer to the Grossman party and finished the trilogy last Friday. I surprised me in a good way; I actually didn’t think the prose was that great but somehow the honesty of the language got me hooked. I also didn’t hate the protagonist, possibly because he reminded me of myself about ten years ago. In general I saw some parallels between Quentin’s growth and my own, minus the magic of course, which led to the ending feeling like a punch in the gut. The sequel was an entertaining read, although I think it still had most of the problems people associate with the first novel and I didn’t really understand Quentin’s behavior at the beginning. It felt like Grossman made a leap in quality afterward though; the last novel read very well and I enjoyed the hell out it. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/79 "2014-10-20T03:13:36Z")
> [@Tapiotar](#): > > That must be why I liked it so much when I read it in high school. I read _The King Must Die_ in high school, and being a mythology and history buff, thought I’d love it, but I remember struggling through it and not really enjoying it at all. ---
**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 20, 2014, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986/80 "2014-10-20T12:33:50Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I started **Halloween Tree** Wednesday, but since it’s anime con weekend, I won’t get to it again until Monday. Ah, so we can sort of read it together after all. I just started it this morning. Over the weekend I read about 70 pages of [The Boy Who Drew Monsters](http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Drew-Monsters-Novel/dp/1250057159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413808248&sr=1-1&keywords=boy+who+drew+monsters), but at that point I was spectacularly uninvolved with the story and not feeling any connection to the characters, so pffft. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2014-edition/699986.md?page=5)