# Khadaji's What'cha reading -- May 2014 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445 "2014-05-01T15:58:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/1 "2014-05-01T15:58:20Z")
May 1 – the anniversary of my first kiss – 1954, age nine, George brought a May basket to my door, knocked and ran away slowly. I caught him and my reward was a kiss on the cheek, or maybe it was his reward – I can’t remember who kissed who. Ma What’s everyone reading? I’m browsing a collection of essays collected by Christopher Morley. [Link to April’s thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=719749) \*\*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 of 2013, and it was decided that we should rename these monthly threads in his honour. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/2 "2014-05-01T17:30:46Z")
I just started on [A Hat Full of Sky](http://www.amazon.com/Hat-Full-Sky-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0060586605/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=) this morning. I didn’t get far, but I could already write the review, knowing it will be pretty darn good. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/3 "2014-05-01T17:43:41Z")
On Sunday I’ll continue my Derby Day tradition and re-read Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/4 "2014-05-01T18:27:48Z")
I’m currently about a third of the way into Charles Rosenberg’s [**Long Knives**](http://www.amazon.com/Long-Knives-Charles-Rosenberg/dp/1477817522/), which I only have because it was a free Kindle First a few months ago. So far I’m enjoying it: Rosenberg’s writing is ok (though not great), and the two mysteries are interesting enough that I keep reading. The shifting viewpoints are a bit jarring, but not too hard to keep up with. I’ll have to see what I think of the ending before I know if I’d be willing to pay for anything by the same author. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/5 "2014-05-01T19:37:28Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I just started on [A Hat Full of Sky](http://www.amazon.com/Hat-Full-Sky-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0060586605/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=) this morning. I didn’t get far, but I could already write the review, knowing it will be pretty darn good. It’s very good. I started **Blood Work** by Michael Connelly last week but really didn’t get far until yesterday stuck in the dentist waiting room while my spawn was under the drill. (serves him right for calling me a nag 😃 ) I think I’m likng Terry even more than Harry. :eek: ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/6 "2014-05-01T20:43:30Z")
Now almost halfway through David Mitchell’s _Cloud Atlas_, often recommended in these threads, and I’m really digging it. It’s an epic multi-plot novel about love, hate, good, evil, civilization and the ties that bind us all together (or don’t). Also rereading one of my favorite Joe Haldeman novels, _Tool of the Trade_, aloud with my teenage son. Just as good as ever. It’s about a deeply troubled Soviet sleeper agent at MIT in the 1980s who develops a practical method of mind control, and decides to use it for his own (maybe nefarious) purposes. Haven’t started _Far from the Tree_ yet, by Andrew Solomon, but it’s on my bedside table. It’s about why children thrive, fail or muddle through, and grow up into the adults they do. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/7 "2014-05-01T21:11:03Z")
I’m 2/3 of the way through _Phnom Penh Noir_, a book of short stories edited by the Canadian writer Christopher G. Moore, who also contributed one of the stories. Pretty much all of them have some link to the Khmer Rouge days. It’s pretty good but not quite as good, I’d say, as _Bangkok Noir_, which I read last month. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/8 "2014-05-01T21:14:59Z")
Nearly finished with Christopher Moore’s **The Serpent of Venice** , my current fiction read. It’s been wonderfully twisted Shakespeare with a hefty helping of weird. I’ve enjoyed it! Also still reading all my nonfics from last month. My current audiobook is \*\*The Railway Detective \*\*by Edward Marston. I get that Inspector Colbeck is supposed to be great guy, but he does say shockingly rude and direct things to people for someone who’s supposed to be a gentleman. He’s a bit egotistical too. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/9 "2014-05-01T22:23:30Z")
> [@Grrlbrarian](#): > > Nearly finished with Christopher Moore’s **The Serpent of Venice** , my current fiction read. It’s been wonderfully twisted Shakespeare with a hefty helping of weird. I’ve enjoyed it! I’ve kind of held back on this one, since I really disliked **Sacre Bleu**. Is the language as rank as **Fool**? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/10 "2014-05-01T23:20:49Z")
May 2014, I am starting the Harry Potter books. I’m about 80 or so pages into the first one. It’s good stuff, I should not have waited, but better late than never. ( It’s my stepdaughter’s book- she was thrilled that I wanted to read it! ) ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/11 "2014-05-01T23:25:18Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > May 2014, > I am starting the Harry Potter books. I’m about 80 or so pages into the first one. It’s good stuff, I should not have waited, but better late than never. ( It’s my stepdaughter’s book- she was thrilled that I wanted to read it! ) Welcome to the Fandom! Prepare to never think the same way again about train stations, chimneys and rubber duckies 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/12 "2014-05-01T23:56:21Z")
As soon as I read about the… relentless letters with the minutely accurate addresses …I thought I was going to like the book(s). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/13 "2014-05-02T00:10:09Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > May 2014, > I am starting the Harry Potter books. I’m about 80 or so pages into the first one. It’s good stuff, I should not have waited, but better late than never. ( It’s my stepdaughter’s book- she was thrilled that I wanted to read it! ) One of my users was enamored of them. I took her PC to the Gateway brickstore for repair, and she constantly inquired about it. I told her the proprietor said that a strange person would come beat the outside wall with a stick, intoning, “Giveus Computerus Backus!”, and I assured the proprietor that it was not she. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/14 "2014-05-03T00:20:32Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > On Sunday I’ll continue my Derby Day tradition and re-read Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” Thanks for the reminder about that one! God, that’s good stuff! [http://english138.web.unc.edu/files/2011/08/The-Kentucky-Derby-is-Decadent-and-Depraved.pdf](http://english138.web.unc.edu/files/2011/08/The-Kentucky-Derby-is-Decadent-and-Depraved.pdf) ---
**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:** [May 3, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/15 "2014-05-03T00:35:43Z")
I finished **Blood Work** by Michael Connelly (just in time for Goodreads to crash) and I have to say it’s my favorite so far. Terry is so much less in-your-faace than Harry and so more enjoyable to read. I started **Origin in Death** by J D Robb, I’ve heard good things about the series buuuut so far I’m underwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/16 "2014-05-03T18:13:04Z")
Stumbled upon the Archived Items feature in my Kindle. I have no idea how those books got there, but what the hey. Started _Free Air_ by Sinclair Lewis. It’s a road trip story, young woman in the early 1900’s takes off with her father, driving across the country, from Minneapolis to Seattle. It’s almost a driving/highway history lesson. She’s pleased when she finds gravel roads rather than muddy tracks. She stops for water almost as often as she stops for gas, which is 27 cents a gallon. “Free air” refers to a sign on a gas station, as well as the sense of freedom she feels as a woman who knows how to drive, with the gumption to take such a trip. Still perusing the Morley collection but am skipping a few. I will never, ever appreciate Joseph Conrad. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/17 "2014-05-03T19:03:03Z")
I’m currently rereading Diana Gabaldon’s _An Echo in the Bone_. Her next Outlander novel is coming out next month \*\*YAY!!! \*\*and I wanted to refresh my memory of the story to date. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/18 "2014-05-03T20:04:25Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > She stops for water almost as often as she stops for gas, which is 27 cents a gallon. Water of gas is 0.27 per gallon? Dad was annoyed in the 1960’s when gasoline went up to 0.29 per gallon What have you against Conrad? Aside from being wordy and as racist as any Englishman of his time. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/19 "2014-05-03T20:14:05Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Stumbled upon the Archived Items feature in my Kindle. I have no idea how those books got there, but what the hey. > > Started _Free Air_ by Sinclair Lewis. It’s a road trip story, young woman in the early 1900’s takes off with her father, driving across the country, from Minneapolis to Seattle. It’s almost a driving/highway history lesson. She’s pleased when she finds gravel roads rather than muddy tracks. She stops for water almost as often as she stops for gas, which is 27 cents a gallon. > > “Free air” refers to a sign on a gas station, as well as the sense of freedom she feels as a woman who knows how to drive, with the gumption to take such a trip. I should check it out, I love road trips. And I DO still hear people asking how my husband can let me drive so far by myself. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445/20 "2014-05-03T21:17:49Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Water or gas is 0.27 per gallon? Dad was annoyed in the 1960’s when gasoline went up to 0.29 per gallon Gas. That surprised me too, because I remember 27 cent gas in 1963. Hard to believe the price hadn’t changed in 50 years. > [@](#): > > What have you against Conrad? Aside from being wordy and as racist as any Englishman of his time. Wordy. Pedestrian. Lacking energy, or enthusiasm. I can’t read enough pages to pick up on any racism. Maybe the problem is that I try him when I’ve run out of everything else, it’s late, I’m tired, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-may-2014/687445.md?page=2)