# What are you reading now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237 "2005-11-09T17:32:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/41 "2005-11-09T21:06:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I recently pullerd it out and read through it at bedtime. My god, it’s less tha ten years old and it seems ancient. “Alt Tab switching”, “ABORT, RETRY, FAIL”, dial-up internet speeds. My daughter, if she ever reads this, will need a translator. Yeah, it’s dated. But it’s still funny as shit. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/42 "2005-11-09T21:06:55Z")
I just started \*\*To Rule the Waves : How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World \*\* by Arthur Herman. The “truck-book” is **Web Side Story** by Richard Rankin. The “throne-book” is a one-volume collection of old Green Lantern comic books. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/43 "2005-11-09T23:25:00Z")
I’m reading a bio on Pol Pot. Don’t really like it, it’s not really well written(imho), and I have a hard time keeping the names straight, and since they’re Cambodian names it’s even harder. I like history, maybe I’ll pick up that Cap’n Cook one. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/44 "2005-11-09T23:59:52Z")
I’m currently reading “Stork Club: America’s Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society” by Ralph Blumenthal. This book was a birthday present from somebody, and quite honestly, I wouldn’t have picked it up for myself. But it’s actually pretty interesting. I just got finished reading “Tourist Season” by Carl Hiaasen. That’s a detective thriller (written way back in 1985) decrying the commercialization & over-development of Florida. God only knows what Hiaasen must think of the state 20 years later, and after the recent hurricanes. (There’s a running theme of the book that mother nature will strike back at the corrupt, greedy real estate forces who are despoiling the natural paradise by turning it into a tacky tourist trap.) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/45 "2005-11-10T00:15:31Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > **The Know-It-All : One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World** by A. J. Jacobs. I, too, recently read this one, and I give it thumbs up. By turns informative, profound, trivial, and laugh-out-loud funny (see, for example, the section on “manure”), and with a surprisingly coherent storyline for a book that’s arranged alphabetically. I’d say it has some of the same appeal as Bill Bryson’s books. Other books I’ve recently read: _Between Planets_ by Robert A. Heinlein. Inspired by recent threads, I read this, one of his juveniles that I hadn’t gotten to before. Not bad (classic Heinlein), but not his best. _Dealing with Dragons_ by Patricia Wrede (of her “Enchanted Forest Chronicles”), after seeing it recommended in more than one fantasy thread around here. A fun, entertaining, quick read. It plays on some of the old fairy tale cliches, which is hardly a new idea, but it is well done. _The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon_ by Stephen King. Maybe the closest thing to a King juvenile. Not essential King, but a good read, especially for October, the month of both Halloween and baseball. _God’s Debris_ by Scott Adams. A “thought experiment” in which the Dilbert creator gets all philosophical ‘n’ shit. It’s short, a quick and easy read, and mildly thought-provoking, I suppose, but not nearly as mind-blowing as Adams seems to think it is. I’ve read better stuff here in Great Debates. _The Annotated Flatland_ by Edwin Abbott, with annotations by Ian Stewart. I’ve heard about _Flatland_ long enough but, until now, hadn’t gotten around to actually reading it. It’s the kind of book I _should_ like, and _ought_ to have read, but, well, as it turns out I kind of had to force myself to finish it. I can see why people like it, and Stewart’s annotations were interesting, but, in hindsight, I probably got as much out of hearing about the book as I did out of actually reading it for myself. and I’ve recently started _The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions_ by Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright. Cover blurb: “The leading liberal and conservative Jesus scholars present the heart of the Historical Jesus debate.” Looks interesting. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/46 "2005-11-10T00:22:01Z")
Just finished reading Bing West’s “No True Glory” about Fallujah. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/47 "2005-11-10T00:32:52Z")
I started the new Michael Connelly _The Lincoln Lawyer_ yesterday and bit off a big tasty appetiser. Mark Rowlands _Everything I Know I Learned from TV_. A proper philosopher uses the worlds of _Buffy_, _The Sopranos_, _Seinfeld_. _The Simpson’s_ etc to explain the major questions of modern philosophy. It is such fun reading about Tony Soprano - “the conflicted man” - on one hand he loves and cares for his family, on the other is all the “whacking” and “clipping”. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/48 "2005-11-10T00:49:19Z")
**Memories of Ice** by Steven Erikson. It’s the third Malazan book. I read half of it awhile back, in paperback, but it hurt my eyes so I put it aside until I could get the hardcover. It still hurts my eyes. 🙂 May I rave about **Owen Parry’s** Civil War mystery/suspense series? I’m gonna. They’re excellent. Not too light, not too heavy, humor when it’s needed, and mercifully free of anachronisms in thought or setting. Definitely a 19th century sensibility. The first one is **Faded Coat of Blue**. I don’t remember who recommended these. Might have been a Doper. If so, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/49 "2005-11-10T01:00:31Z")
_Anansi Boys_ by Neil Gaiman–really great read, I recommend it to everybody–and also rereading _The Last Light of the Sun_ by Guy Gavriel Kay and _The Reduced Shakespeare Company_ (which is hilarious). ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/50 "2005-11-10T02:30:23Z")
> [@slortar](#): > > . . . . . > The Earthsea Trilogy > . . . . . Man, I love those books. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/51 "2005-11-10T02:31:47Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > . . . . . > I just got finished reading “Tourist Season” by Carl Hiaasen. . . . One of my favorite modern crime novels. Still Hiaasen’s best, you ax me. HYlarryus. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/52 "2005-11-10T04:53:41Z")
Just finished Rocks of Ages by Stephen Gould and beginning The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. Also reading a book on IC yield that I have to write a review for a magazine by the end of the month. ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/53 "2005-11-10T05:46:51Z")
Re-reading LotR. I’ve got Ken Kesey, Neil Gaiman, R.A. Wilson and Erik Larsen on the docket. I’m set until Valentine’s Day. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/54 "2005-11-10T06:18:32Z")
**Maurice** , by E.M. Forster. Apparently he wrote it around 1913 but it wasn’t published until 1971. The title character loves other men. **We’re just like you, only Prettier** , by Celia Rivenback. Humorous observations by a Southern belle. Absolutely hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/55 "2005-11-10T07:39:21Z")
Long Win Corporate Social Responsibility Report. It’s really boring. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/56 "2005-11-10T07:44:53Z")
Wow, Dung Beetle, you managed to squeeze Savage, Rimm and colon inoto the same OP. Some Savage plug too. Finished the CSR Report now. Reading for pleasure at the moment includes the _Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II_. Amazing how popular the old prig is, especially in the States. Very gratifying to a younger prig. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/57 "2005-11-10T16:46:33Z")
I forgot, I also picked up Don Quixote and will try to get through it this weekend. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/58 "2005-11-10T17:37:43Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Wow, Dung Beetle, you managed to squeeze Savage, Rimm and colon inoto the same OP. Some Savage plug too. Hey, what about Stiff? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/59 "2005-11-10T18:10:52Z")
I have never been able to participate in one of these threads, so this is a monumental occasion. I am currently reading **The Measure of All Things** by Ken Alder. It is the story of Mechain and Delambre, the two Frenchmen who were charged with the task of measuring part of the meridian in France to determine the length of the meter. Incredible story! ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237/60 "2005-11-10T19:57:31Z")
> [@DogMom](#): > > Just starting the _Roma sub Rosa_ mystery series featuring Gordianus the Finder by Steven Saylor. Excellent books. \ Oh my goodness! I read some of those books in High School because I was a Latin student and loved them. I had completely forgotten the name of the author or main character in the ensuing years. Thank you for bringing them up. Currently, I am plowing through _Knife of Dreams_, which is #11 in the dreaded / loved “Wheel of Time” series by Robert Jordan. I’m only reading on my lunch breaks right now, so unless I get some reading in over the weekends, it’s gonna take me a long, long time to finish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-reading-now/330237.md?page=4)