# Watcha readin'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804 "2006-12-19T18:19:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/61 "2006-12-26T04:00:00Z")
_Remembered Death_ by Agatha Christie. I was surprised to find out that it is the book also known as _Sparkling Cyanide_. I have the Agatha Christie Mystery Collection blue leatherette edition of the first, and have been trying to find an affordable copy of the second–guess I don’t have to worry about that no more! It’s the second time they’ve done it to me, too. I forked out for both _The Sittaford Mystery_ and _Murder at Hazelmoor_, which are the same book. I am also in the middle of the second movement of Anthony Powell’s _A Dance to the Music of Time_. Why are these books not enormously famous and popular? It’s sort of like Proust, but taking place in Bertie Wooster’s world. It’s wonderful. And also, today I received, began, and finished _Better Than Beauty: A Guide to Charm._ My mother gave me that. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/62 "2006-12-26T05:18:55Z")
Right now I am enjoying [Around the World with Auntie Mame](http://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Auntie-Patrick-Dennis/dp/0767915852) . Next on deck is [I Like You : Hospitality Under The Influence](http://www.amysedarisrocks.com/ilikeyou.htm) by Amy Sedaris. Then it will be [My Ox is Broken](http://www.amazon.com/My-Ox-Broken-Roadblocks-Forwards/dp/1932100911/sr=1-1/qid=1167110246/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8392190-7277703?ie=UTF8&s=books) . Yup. **Jayjay** gave me the last two for Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![Critical\_Mass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Critical\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical_Mass)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/63 "2006-12-26T11:30:17Z")
I expended more effort avoiding reading projects in high school than I would have if I had just read the assigned books. It’s amazing I graduated at all. I hated English class. For the life of me, I don’t remember why. I’ve always enjoyed reading; always had a book on the go. I may be 20 years older than the typical first time classics reader. I am catching up, however. In the last few months I’ve read **Of Mice and Men** and **Grapes of Wrath**. I’m currently reading **East of Eden**. This **Steinbeck** fellow is pretty good. I’ve got **Moby Dick** lined up next. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/64 "2006-12-26T11:40:12Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] And also, today I received, began, and finished _Better Than Beauty: A Guide to Charm._ My mother gave me that. [/QUOTE] And when can we begin to look forward to the results? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/65 "2006-12-26T11:51:22Z")
A friend of mine lent me _Innumeracy_ on Saturday. It should be interesting reading. I’m also on a bit of a Jane Austen kick. I finished _Persuasion_ on Saturday and liked it well enough, but the title character of _Emma_ is getting on my nerves. **Sattua** , let me know what you think of _Remembered Death_. I read it recently and I’d like to talk to someone about 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:** [December 26, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/66 "2006-12-26T13:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] [We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier](http://www.amazon.com/Were-Just-Like-Only-Prettier/dp/0312312431/sr=1-1/qid=1166554179/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4989217-4133718?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Celia Rivenbark, [/QUOTE] I just read this and am now reading one of her other ones…but only because I need some words to rub my eyes against for a few days before I get the chance to go back to some real reading. I can’t decide if she’s trying to be Dave Barry or Erma Bombeck, but it doesn’t much matter, since she’s failing miserably. IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/67 "2007-01-04T17:47:58Z")
Just finished **The Woman in Black** by Susan Hill. It’s a ghost story, and if I had a top ten list of ghost stories, this would be #1. The reason I don’t have a top ten list is that I haven’t found ten good ones. I tell ya, I left lights on when I went to bed last night. Lots of lights. I was scared to look behind me when I climbed the stairs. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/68 "2007-01-04T18:46:20Z")
I was planning on starting a new one of these, but what the heck… Am just finishing > [@](#): > > Brother Odd . This third installment of Dean Koontz Odd series is better than the second and possibly as good as the first. I do admit that I am somewhat reminded of some of the reviewer’s comments of _Lucky Number Slevin_, that said it was too glib. Much of the dialong is rather glib, but much like in Slevin, this didn’t diminish my enjoyment. Indeed, it is part of the fun for me. I agree that it makes the dialog a little less realistic - I have no doubt that the nuns and brothers of most spiritual retreats do not have the quickness of Koontz’s characters. But lets face it, if he protrayed them as they arre, we would be quickly bored. The plot has been interesting, but I am nearly to the end and am a little fearful that he will wrap it up poorly. I will probably see tonight. I am halfway through Simon Green’s Hell To Pay. It is typical of this series - which is admittedly all mind-candy, but none-the-less I enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/69 "2007-01-04T19:04:26Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Just finished **The Woman in Black** by Susan Hill. It’s a ghost story, and if I had a top ten list of ghost stories, this would be #1. The reason I don’t have a top ten list is that I haven’t found ten good ones. I tell ya, I left lights on when I went to bed last night. Lots of lights. I was scared to look behind me when I climbed the stairs. [/QUOTE] Ooh. Is it gory? I don’t like gore, but I do like a scary ghost story. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/70 "2007-01-04T19:23:19Z")
Ellen Datlow’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 2006. Solid, as always. I’ll look for The Woman in Black. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/71 "2007-01-04T21:07:27Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] Ooh. Is it gory? I don’t like gore, but I do like a scary ghost story. [/QUOTE] Nary a drop of blood anywhere, just chills and a feeling of dread that stays with you when you’re finished reading. I went searching for the DVD of the movie, which was directed by Herbert Wise (!), screenplay by Nigel Kneale (!) but it’s out of print. No used ones either, and Hill’s site says the copies at Amazon and e-bay are bootlegs. (How would she know?) And Netflix doesn’t have it. I thought Netflix had everything. There’s a stage play, but I’m not in London. **Dung Beetle** , it’s a guaranteed good read. I’ve noticed that we like lots of the same kind of books, so I feel safe recommending this. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/72 "2007-01-04T21:13:59Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] **Dung Beetle** , it’s a guaranteed good read. I’ve noticed that we like lots of the same kind of books, so I feel safe recommending this. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I feel pretty safe _taking_ your recommendations. 🙂 Between the mention of The Woman in Black and RickJay’s Long Walk thread\*, I suddenly recalled that I’d always meant to read Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, so I’ve got that coming from the library too. - a character in the book names the Collins book as his all-time favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/73 "2007-01-04T21:54:45Z")
I just finished _Team of Rivals_ by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It’s outstanding – one of the better nonfiction books I’ve read in a good long while. I also finished Cormac McCarthy’s _All the Pretty Horses_ over the holidays; and I’ve since ordered the rest of the Border Trilogy. He’s simply a great, great writer – one of my favorites (gotta get _The Road_ on my list, too). Now I’m trying to get into _Gravity’s Rainbow_ by Thomas Pynchon, but having limited success. The only other Pynchon title I’ve read is _Mason & Dixon_, which was a pleasantly challenging book (and more challenging than pleasant, at times). I’ve read and enjoyed immensely much of Neal Stephenson’s recent work (of which I’m reminded by Pynchon’s), and must remind myself that it took some initial effort for me to get into each book in the Baroque Cycle. I’m also about 60 pages into Evelyn Waugh’s _Brideshead Revisited_ and enjoying that quite a lot. I’ve not read any Waugh at all before now. I’ll get in line for _The Woman in Black_ (another recommendation from here, **Auntie Pam** , that you continue your recommendations). ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/74 "2007-01-04T22:00:38Z")
I have a little anecdote that amuses and bemuses me, and is relevant to the thread (!) I was reading my current book and it describes how the main character holds a piece of glistening material the people around him have never seen before, and it left me thinking, wow, I wonder what it is, and I can’t wait until they explain what that was all about! The name of the book? [Cellophane](http://www.amazon.com/Cellophane-Marie-Arana/dp/0385336640/sr=8-1/qid=1167947857/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-8696683-3364420?ie=UTF8&s=books) :smack: Which is very lyrical, BTW. This was about the same time it dawned on me why Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith might have named their kids Jaden and Willow. :smack: :smack: Man am I slow on the uptake–Jaden must be seven by now. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/75 "2007-01-13T21:05:12Z")
Ach! Reading ups and downs! After the wonderful **Woman in Black** , I read **Five Mile House** by Karen Novack. Blech. Competent writing, style-wise, but scanty characterization and sloppy plotting. But the bad taste of that book was more than erased by the wonderful **Black Swan Green** by David Mitchell. A year in the life of a 13-year old boy, and what a year it was. I love this kid. I’ll be reading more Mitchell. On to **The Dragonbone Chair** by Tad Williams, which I’m enjoying muchly. Very rich in setting and characterization, so far. And I’m thinking the plot won’t be **too** dense. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/76 "2007-01-13T21:39:53Z")
I just finished S. M. Stirling’s [The Sky People](http://www.amazon.com/Sky-People-Sci-Essential-Books/dp/0765314886/sr=8-1/qid=1168724223/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8293895-2524053?ie=UTF8&s=books), and am about to launch into David Weber’s [Off Armageddon Reef](http://www.amazon.com/Off-Armageddon-Reef-David-Weber/dp/0765315009/sr=8-2/qid=1168724223/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-8293895-2524053?ie=UTF8&s=books). Then it will be back to Stirling for [The Peshawar Lancers](http://www.amazon.com/Peshawar-Lancers-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451458737/sr=1-14/qid=1168724358/ref=sr_1_14/002-8293895-2524053?ie=UTF8&s=books), which I bought when it came out but never got around to reading. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/77 "2007-01-13T22:13:56Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] After the wonderful **Woman in Black** [/QUOTE] Hey, **AP** , I read that at your suggestion. I really enjoyed it. Now I’m reading _Storm Front_ by Jim Butcher (the first of the Dresden Files books). And I just got a ginormous stack of books from the library, including: _The Black Jewels Trilogy_ by Anne Bishop _The Mabinogion Tetrology_ by Evangeline Walton (suggested to me a long time ago by a Doper, but my library didn’t have it until recently) _The Darkness That Comes Before_ by R Scott Bakker _The Oracle Betrayed_ by Catherine Fisher _The Ill-Made Mute_ by Cecilia Dart-Thornton This will last me a while! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/78 "2007-01-13T22:45:45Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] Hey, **AP** , I read that at your suggestion. I really enjoyed it. [/quote] That tickles me pink! > [@](#): > > _The Black Jewels Trilogy_ by Anne Bishop > _The Darkness That Comes Before_ by R Scott Bakker I’ve never read anything quite like Black Jewels. I really liked it. Heavy emotional stuff going on, erotic, even. I’m starting to sweat just thinking about it. The Bakker book – it took a couple of tries before I got into it, but I’m glad I didn’t give up. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/79 "2007-01-13T23:28:11Z")
I have taken the plunge into Live Journal, but only to write reviews of books as I read them: [shoshanapnw.livejournal.com](http://shoshanapnw.livejournal.com) and I’ve reviewed my first 7 book for 2007. I’m about to start Terri Jentz’s **Strange Piece of Paradise** right…now! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804/80 "2007-01-15T01:06:04Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] I’ve never read anything quite like Black Jewels. I really liked it. Heavy emotional stuff going on, erotic, even. I’m starting to sweat just thinking about it. [/QUOTE] I got about 50 pages in and bailed. Hate. So we have a 50/50 shared book rate. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watcha-readin/384804.md?page=5)