# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- September 2017 Edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 30, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116 "2017-08-30T18:22:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/1 "2017-08-30T18:22:28Z")
Is it Autumn yet? Dopers in the Houston Texas area, be safe! The rest of us, if you can afford it, donate to help organizations, please.
So what are we reading?
```auto
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of the 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, and he started these monthly book threads. Sadly, he passed away in January 2013, and we decided to rename these monthly threads in his honor.
```
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/2 "2017-08-30T18:23:56Z")
Last month’s thread: [Dog days of August](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=832262)
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### Author:  [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2017, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/3 "2017-08-31T11:28:13Z")
Following Brian Aldiss’ recent death, I’ve started reading _The Shape of Further Things_, which is a diary/musings he wrote over January 1969 about all sorts of things.
I was looking through the books of his I owned, thinking it might be appropriate to finally read the Helliconia books, when I came across it - my partner must have bought it decades ago before we merged our collections, but she hadn’t read it either!
* * *
‘Earth is charged with a beauty we are destroying…’ So begins this unique book, in which joy and doom intermingle. It spans one month in the life of Aldiss and his wife Margaret and family, living in the peaceful Oxfordshire countryside. Here’s a tapestry of provocative meditations, theories of dreams, of the Moon as real estate, and the role of technology and pollution in our lives - all served up with soup and sausage rolls. Aldiss speaks of ‘The sheer delight of being alive’ - and captures that delight here.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/4 "2017-09-01T04:36:40Z")
Getting close to finishing _Washington: A Life_, by Ron Chernow. About 140 pages or so left.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/5 "2017-09-01T16:22:06Z")
**Dung Beetle** , **Grrlbrarian**!
TWELVE days and counting until the new Lockwood & Co book is released!
I’m giddy with excitement…😃
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/6 "2017-09-01T16:24:17Z")
> [@Meurglys](#):
>
> Following Brian Aldiss’ recent death, I’ve started reading _The Shape of Further Things_, which is a diary/musings he wrote over January 1969 about all sorts of things.
> I was looking through the books of his I owned, thinking it might be appropriate to finally read the Helliconia books, when I came across it - my partner must have bought it decades ago before we merged our collections, but she hadn’t read it either!
>
> * * *
I read Helliconia Summer and Winter when I was in my late teens. They weren’t what I expected but Winter has stuck with me for 30+ years.
---
### Author:  [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/7 "2017-09-01T19:26:43Z")
I am about a third of the way through LOSTBOY: the True Story of Captain Hook, by Christina Henry… intriguing!
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/8 "2017-09-01T20:23:14Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#):
>
> **Dung Beetle** , **Grrlbrarian**!
>
> TWELVE days and counting until the new Lockwood & Co book is released!
>
> I’m giddy with excitement…😃
I know…it’s better than Christmas. 🙂
> [@RunSilent](#):
>
> I am about a third of the way through LOSTBOY: the True Story of Captain Hook, by Christina Henry… intriguing!
If you like that, you might also enjoy [Never After](https://www.amazon.com/Never-After-Dan-Elconin/dp/1416979662/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1504297196&sr=8-1), by Dan Elconin. The original Peter Pan didn’t click much for me, but I’ve really grooved on some books that used it as inspiration.
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### Author:  [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/9 "2017-09-01T20:42:07Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> I know…it’s better than Christmas. 🙂
> If you like that, you might also enjoy [Never After](https://www.amazon.com/Never-After-Dan-Elconin/dp/1416979662/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1504297196&sr=8-1), by Dan Elconin. The original Peter Pan didn’t click much for me, but I’ve really grooved on some books that used it as inspiration.
Thanks, I will check it out.
---
### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/10 "2017-09-01T21:37:12Z")
Thanks for the kick in the pants. I’ve got Dennis LeHane **Since We Fell** and **Magpie Murders** by Anthony Horowitz from the library and need to apply myself this weekend! It’s nice and cold so curling up in bed with a book will be no problem.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/11 "2017-09-01T23:09:45Z")
> [@gigi](#):
>
> Thanks for the kick in the pants. I’ve got Dennis LeHane **Since We Fell** and **Magpie Murders** by Anthony Horowitz from the library and need to apply myself this weekend! It’s nice and cold so curling up in bed with a book will be no problem.
What is cold? been 96F here and looking to stay that way for awhile ☹
---
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/12 "2017-09-01T23:12:57Z")
Speaking of Lockwood & Co, this was in my email:
Hello,
We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on May 19, 2017
Stroud, Jonathan “Lockwood & Co., Book Five The Empty Grave”
Estimated arrival date: September 18, 2017 - September 22, 2017
YES!!!
---
### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/13 "2017-09-02T14:13:48Z")
I’m reading **But What If We’re Wrong?** by Chuck Klosterman. It’s about about what Culture survives long term and how it is almost impossible to predict because current values and future values differ so much. It’s really fascinating and I have been thinking of starting a few discussion threads here based on stuff he brings up in the book.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/14 "2017-09-02T18:00:27Z")
I finished **Fallon’s Jewel** by Sidonia Guillone. It’s a m/m romance that’s part space opera an part epic. Unfortunately she should have stuck to it being all space opera, that half of the book was a fun read and more forgiving of the less than stellar writing.
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### Author:  [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/15 "2017-09-02T19:54:28Z")
While I know e-books are not as good as real books, there is an advantage to them. I can reserve them as soon as they are announced and if I was first, I get first crack at them when they are released. I started \*Y is for Yesterday \*as soon as I finished the last book I was reading.
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### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/16 "2017-09-03T20:48:46Z")
I just finished a memoir called _[Die Young with Me](https://www.amazon.com/Die-Young-Me-Rob-Rufus/dp/1501142615)_ by Rob Rufus. I really really liked this book.
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### Author:  [@Grrlbrarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrlbrarian)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/17 "2017-09-04T18:41:51Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#):
>
> **Dung Beetle** , **Grrlbrarian**!
>
> TWELVE days and counting until the new Lockwood & Co book is released!
>
> I’m giddy with excitement…😃
Giddy here as well! EIGHT DAYS. I CAN WAIT EIGHT DAYS. (I think) 😉
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2017, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/18 "2017-09-04T23:55:09Z")
Just finished _Sleeping with the Fishes_, by Mary Janice Davidson, which I enjoyed. Next up: _You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing_, by John Scalzi.
---
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/19 "2017-09-05T00:29:31Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#):
>
> _You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing_, by John Scalzi.
I’m not? Boy is our NaNo group going to be disappointed.
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2017-edition/795116/20 "2017-09-05T03:17:53Z")
I gave up on Ed Lin’s _Ghost Month_, a mystery novel about a glum street vendor in Taiwan who looks into the unsolved murder of his ex-girlfriend, after my customary 50 pages (or the equivalent, since I was listening to an audiobook). Plodding and dull.
I’m a few chapters into rereading Frank Herbert’s sf classic _Dune_, which isn’t as well-written as I remember from when I last read it in high school (no surprise there), although its world-building is still terrific. I’m also reading _Education in Violence_ by Francis F. McKinney, a biography of a Civil War hero of mine, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, “the Rock of Chickamauga.” A rather stolid personality but a talented and courageous soldier.
Also just about halfway through David McCullough’s first book, _The Johnstown Flood_. The tension of the events leading up to the May 1889 dam break was thick enough to cut with a knife, and now the tales of death and survival in Johnstown are pretty gripping.
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Getting close to finishing _Washington: A Life_, by Ron Chernow. About 140 pages or so left.
Great bio. Hope you’re digging it!
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