# What book are you reading right now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323 "2003-09-13T02:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/21 "2003-09-13T06:11:53Z")
I’m about 30 pages into Joseph Heller’s _Something Happened_. I don’t think it’ll be as good as _Catch-22_ so far, but thus far it’s interesting. ---
**Author:** ![karomon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@karomon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/karomon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/22 "2003-09-13T06:23:43Z")
_Gotham_ by Edwin G. Burrows. **mug** , that sounds really good! Thanks for recommending it. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/23 "2003-09-13T06:32:34Z")
Just finished _Lies and the lying liars who tell them_ by **Al Franken**. Great book. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/24 "2003-09-13T06:51:30Z")
I just finished re-reading _The Annotated Lolita_. I read the same annotationed version the first time, but I caught more of the little things this time and I just have a better idea of how this great book was put together. Up next? maybe Vonnegut’s _Hocus Pocus_, or going back to Dawkins’ _The Selfish Gene_. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/25 "2003-09-13T07:08:48Z")
> [@](#): > > It sounds like this is your first dose of post-apocalyptic cyber punk. Savor it, and everything else Gibson has written. [hijack]That it is, and I’m enjoying it a great deal. So far it really does seem like an incredibly well thought out view of the future and how technologly might progress, and after reading just some of this (I’m halfway through), _The Matrix_ does seem to pale in comparison.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/26 "2003-09-13T07:39:49Z")
**A Princess of Mars** by Edgar Rice Burroughs, for the first time. Had never even heard of it until I started reading this message board. Next up is **The Mysterious Island** by Jules Verne. ---
**Author:** ![RahRahMah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@RahRahMah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RahRahMah)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/27 "2003-09-13T08:01:44Z")
Slogging through **Atlas Shrugged** by Ayn Rand. Don’t even get me started. I hate every single character. In a deep and personal way. So at least the characters seem real to me, right? Gr. She makes some good points in here, but when she’s wrong shes WAY off. Rand is such a capatalist egotistical…YAR! I’m really too left wing for this book and should stop before I have an aneurism. ---
**Author:** ![Rayn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85e7bf/32.png) [@Rayn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/28 "2003-09-13T08:17:10Z")
**The Corrections** by Jonathen Franzen, looks good so far (~20 pgs in). **Ward No. 6 and Other Stories** by Anton Chekov, fantastic stories. **Darwin’s Dangerous Idea** by Daniel C. Dennett, haven’t read much yet, though **Consciousness Explained** was quite good, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/29 "2003-09-13T10:11:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RahRahMah \* > \*\*Slogging through **Atlas Shrugged** by Ayn Rand. Don’t even get me started. I hate every single character. In a deep and personal way. So at least the characters seem real to me, right? Gr. She makes some good points in here, but when she’s wrong shes WAY off. Rand is such a capatalist egotistical…YAR! I’m really too left wing for this book and should stop before I have an aneurism. \*\* You know, it’s _OK_ to admit that you just don’t like a book and stop reading. Unless you’ve reached that point where you HAVE to know how it ends or it’ll haunt you. ---
**Author:** ![fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzygoodmakefeelnice)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/30 "2003-09-13T10:24:40Z")
**Fantastic Mr Fox** by Roahl Dahl. I found it in the loft - it’s great! ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/31 "2003-09-13T10:29:52Z")
Currently reading _Watchmen_ by Alan Moore, _I, Claudius_ by Robert Graves, rereading _No Logo_ ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Lehnert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Robert\_Lehnert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert_Lehnert)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/32 "2003-09-13T11:30:29Z")
Sims by F. Paul Wilson ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/33 "2003-09-13T11:33:58Z")
_Naked_ by David Sedaris. After hearing so many friends talk about how wonderful his books were, I was able to find three of them sitting on the shelf at the used book store, so I snagged them, I’m reading them, and so far, they’re GREAT! ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/34 "2003-09-13T12:58:56Z")
Am about to finish “Standing in the Rainbow”, by Fannie Flagg. Neither hysterically funny like her first book, “Coming Attractions”[renamed "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man], nor as somber as “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe.” A gentle, simple, comical in parts, slice of small town Midwestern life, post WWII. Poor Tot! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/35 "2003-09-13T13:14:53Z")
**Robert** , F. Paul hangs out in the Books forum at Gorezone, nice guy. I’m reading a soft science fiction book called **Things Unborn** by ? Byrne (book’s upstairs). It’s a mystery, and the SF part is because some of the characters are “Retreads”, people from different times in history who are reborn at the place where they died. The concept is similar to Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go, but not everyone is reborn, and at the time the book starts, it’s been happening for 40 years or so and institutions have developed to assimilate and assist the retreads. And keep them in line. Richard III is King, there were a bunch of wars led by the Duke of Monmouth (defeated by T. E. Lawrence), and when the story starts, Roundheads are trying to overthrow the liberal government. It’s not taken too serious fun. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/36 "2003-09-13T13:33:36Z")
Just finished _Villa Incognito_ by Tom Robins & _The Lovely Bones_ by Alice Sebold. Just started \* The Shelter Stones\* bu Jean Auel Like her others, its a little slow starting. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/37 "2003-09-13T13:39:19Z")
**mug** – I’d read a review of _The Time-Traveler’s Wife_ and thought it sounded interesting – I’ll definitely keep my eye out for that. I’m currently reading _The Botany of Desire_ by Michael Pollan – a meditation on the evolutionary relationship between humankind and four plants, each of which is about a different kind of human desire: the tulip (desire for beauty); the apple (desire for sweetness); marijuana (desire for intoxication); the potato (desire for control). As a gardener and evolution buff, this is right up my alley – I’m really enjoying it. Just about to start the third section – since it’s raining (and will apparently continue to rain for most of the weekend), I anticipate getting in some serious reading time – woo hoo! ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/38 "2003-09-13T13:39:55Z")
Am putting off starting **One Hundred Years Of Solitude** (Gabriel García Márquez). It was going cheap in a record store, and I had a vague feeling I probably should have read it at some point. Page one seems okay, but I haven’t overcome the sinking feeling at spotting a family tree. Any book that needs a family tree or _dramatis personæ_ has been heavy going in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Husker\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Husker\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Husker_Dude)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/39 "2003-09-13T13:55:11Z")
Band of Brothers - by Stephen E. Ambrose ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323/40 "2003-09-13T14:29:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by twickster \* > \*\*I’m currently reading _The Botany of Desire_ by Michael Pollan – a meditation on the evolutionary relationship between humankind and four plants, each of which is about a different kind of human desire: the tulip (desire for beauty); the apple (desire for sweetness); marijuana (desire for intoxication); the potato (desire for control). \*\* **twickster** , I always thought that sounded like an interesting book! I just finished **The Green Pearl** by Jack Vance. I’m now reading **Dreamer’s Tales** , a collection of stories by Lord Dunsany. You can see from these that he was a big influence on H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. Neat stuff. Archergal, sitting at the computer instead of being out in the woods on the first day of bowhunting season – what’s wrong with this picture??? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now/201323.md?page=3)