# Okay, whatcha readin' \*now\*?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 20, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779 "2007-05-20T01:42:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/21 "2007-05-20T09:27:32Z")
John Crowley’s **Little, Big** ,
China Miéville’s\*\* Looking For Jake and other stories\*\*,
Walter Moers’ **The City of Dreaming Books** and
Terry Pratchett’s **Wintersmith**.
Also making my way with a magnifying glass through Nick Yapp’s **Getty Images - 1900s** , just for steampunky background.
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### Author:  [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/22 "2007-05-20T09:45:01Z")
_The Knife Man_ which I bought in the Hunterian Museum when I was in London. It’s about the birth of modern surgery. Also has body-snatching.
My version is the UK version, and I’m not sure it’s released in the US, but it’s great.
This guy is the probable basis for the fictional characters of Jekell/Hyde and Dr. Doolittle. He infected _himself_ with syphillis/clap for scientific purposes.
Fascinating.
(I read it while I was in London, but it’s worth 2 or 3 reads.)
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### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/23 "2007-05-20T17:39:43Z")
I’m about halfway through **Science Friction** by Michael Shermer, a collection of essays he wrote over the years (including a very moving one about his mother’s fight with cancer) and just finished **The God Delusion** by Richard Dawkins.
I also have to wholeheartedly agree with the other Discworld fans on the board. **The Colour of Magic** is probably the weakest book in the series. Terry started to find his footing with **The Light Fantastic** , but it really wasn’t until **Wyrd Sisters** and **Guards, Guards!** that he really hit his stride. **Mort** is significant in a number of ways, but those others really show his talent.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/24 "2007-05-20T18:44:39Z")
Second Chance by Brzezinski and the Art of War by Sun Tzu
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### Author:  [@akira5822](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akira5822)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/25 "2007-05-20T18:49:30Z")
I,m about halfway through **Proven guilty** by **Jim Butcher** a Dresden files novel
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### Author:  [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/26 "2007-05-20T18:54:03Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble]
John Crowley’s **Little, Big** ,
[/QUOTE]
That’s my favorite novel of all time.
I’m currently reading Frank Portman’s **King Dork** , which is one of the more hilarious and amazing coming of age novels I’ve read. It’s a direct pastiche of/homage to _Catcher in the Rye_ that manages to directly make fun of _Catcher_ throughout. Any high school nerd that was way too into music will love this.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/27 "2007-05-20T19:25:23Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
I’m working my way through Martin Gilbert’s **Second World War**
[/QUOTE]
Coincidentially, this is what I plan to read next, followed by Gilbert’s three-volume _History of the Twentieth Century_. Gilbert’s WWII book has very nice black-and-white maps- something which Shirer’s is sorely lacking.
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/28 "2007-05-20T19:36:02Z")
Almost done with the first Dresden Files book.
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### Author:  [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/29 "2007-05-20T19:38:46Z")
[Going Long: The History of the American Football League](http://www.amazon.com/Going-Long-Renegade-American-Football/dp/0071441549/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4025762-4167042?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179689443&sr=1-2)
[1912: Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft & Debs and the Election that Changed the Country](http://www.amazon.com/1912-Roosevelt-Debs-Election-Changed/dp/0743273559/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4025762-4167042?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179689798&sr=1-1)
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/30 "2007-05-20T19:38:48Z")
Found some old Lloyd Biggle’s and Eric Ambler’s at the used book store. Currently it’s Doctor Frigo by Ambler.
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/31 "2007-05-20T19:55:48Z")
**The ladies of Grace Adieu** , by Susanna Clarke, is a book of short stories set in the same world as _Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_. Very enjoyable.
**The book of story beginnings** is a new kid’s fantasy novel; not a new idea, but a pretty good story nonetheless.
**Anna Karenina** is my bedtime reading.
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/32 "2007-05-20T20:12:37Z")
I’m reading _Creed or Chaos_, by Dorothy L. Sayers. I began to read her theological essays just out of curiosity, since I was very fond of the Lord Peter Wimsey books. Her essays on Christianity are marvelous, in the league of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.
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### Author:  [@CeilingWhacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CeilingWhacks)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/33 "2007-05-20T21:31:19Z")
I’m reading Rant, but Chuck Palahniuk. It’s all signed and junk. Plus, here’s a photo of me with the author.
You may all bow down in my presence, for I am the coolest reader on the board.
[http://i15.tinypic.com/6c41b7o.jpg](http://i15.tinypic.com/6c41b7o.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/34 "2007-05-20T23:59:07Z")
I’m working my way through **The Ancestors Tale** by Dawkins now.
I just finished the first Thursday Next book, **The Eyre Affair** , after reading the third **The Well of Lost Plots**. The third is better. Some of it is very funny, and I’m hoping this series will be a tenth as good as Discworld, but I need to read some more to see.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/35 "2007-05-21T00:31:15Z")
[QUOTE=Frank]
Found some old Lloyd Biggle’s and Eric Ambler’s at the used book store. Currently it’s Doctor Frigo by Ambler.
[/QUOTE]
Let us know what you think. I personally have only read Ambler’s short stories and _A Coffin for Dimitrios_.
I had dinner with the guy in midtown Manhattan about 20 years ago. He was remarkably knowledgeable about wine.
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### Author:  [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/36 "2007-05-21T00:53:07Z")
Friday I got Vincent Bugliosi’s _Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy_. It’s your basic boat anchor. The book runs to 1600 pages, _plus_ a CD-ROM with a pair of PDFs: one containing source citation notes; the other, 958 pages of “endnotes”. With Bugliosi, the endnotes are usually as important as the main text (hell, his “note” on the alleged audio recording of the assassination runs sixty-odd pages!), so I’m having to print out that sucker; I’m up to page 200 (well ahead of my reading).
See ya in six months.
In anticipation of the release of _Reclaiming History_ I made my self reread David Lifton’s _Best Evidence_ (the book propounding what I suppose could fairly be called the Body Snatchers Conspiracy Theory). In comparison to Bugliosi, Lifton flails.
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/37 "2007-05-21T01:39:45Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
Just finished one of **Koeeoaddi** ’s recommendations: _The Thirteenth Tale_ by Diane Setterfield. (It presented itself quite unexpectedly at the library – the last book on the last shelf of the “new fiction” section – when I’d just gone in hoping to find a novel or two.)
Wonderful old-fashioned storytelling – a woman (I was going to say “a young woman,” but that much isn’t entirely clear) is summoned to the home (on the moors, natch) of Britain’s most famous and beloved novelist. The woman, well into her 80s and approaching death, is finally ready to tell the truth about her life. Perhaps. It’s a long story, and a complicated one, that comes out little by little and resonates with her amanuensis’s own … issues.
Total page-turner – I spent the day lolling on the sofa reading. Highly recommended.
[/QUOTE]
Wheee… **twicks** liked the book I pimped.
[pressing my luck] So, is \*\* Soldier of the Great War\*\* still in the queue? [/nagging]
I just pitched **Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell**. I got half way through and just couldn’t keep going. It’s not that it’s a bad book, really. It just meanders and I have a progressively shrinkng attention span. I accept any blame you JS&MN fans want to shoot my way.
Instead, I started **A Very Long Engagement** by Sebastien Japrisot. **AuntiePam** recommended the movie, which was excellent. The book is even better. It’s about a young girl who doesn’t believe that her fiancé was really killed on the Somme and how she discovers what actually happened to him. It’s a love story/war story/mystery/historical novel and it’s completely absorbing. I was up till 3 am last night and I already _know_ what happens.
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### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/38 "2007-05-21T01:50:27Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
**Midnight Tides** , the fifth book in Steven Erikson’s Malazan series. I just got started, so I haven’t a clue what it’s about. It’s epic fantasy, lots of intrigue and violence.
[/QUOTE]
Ditto, except I’m re-reading it, so I _do_ have a clue what it’s about. I’m working my way up to _Reaper’s Gale_, and I’m hoping that re-reading only _Midnight Tides_ and _The Bonehunters_ will be sufficient to get caught up on the plot.
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### Author:  [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/39 "2007-05-21T02:16:50Z")
I’m reading a fun book called **American Pie** by Pascale Le Draoulec, which my mother recommended to me. It’s a food/travel memoir about, well, pie! The woman who wrote it, though an American herself, was not terribly familar with pie, because her parents were French immigrants who apparently stuck more to their native cuisine. She becomes intrigued by pie as the quintessential American dessert, so she decides to take several cross-country road trips, looking for the best examples of pies all around the US. The people & pies she finds are fascinating, and she includes recipes she collected on the trips. I’m really enjoying it.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-whatcha-readin-now/404779/40 "2007-05-21T02:18:13Z")
China Mieville, _Perdido Street Station._ Holy crap, it’s good.
Richard Dawkins, _The Blind Watchmaker_. Also very good.
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