# What book are you reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2002, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509 "2002-03-28T04:25:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/41 "2002-03-29T00:59:39Z")
Oh, jehoosephat. **Waning**. **Waning** at a dangerous rate. I is an astronomer, really I is. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/42 "2002-03-29T03:16:28Z")
In keeping with my usual preference for non-fiction, I am currently reading **No Mercy** by Redmond O’Hanlon. It is his account of a trip he took a few years back up the Congo river to a lake that supposedly houses a Loch Ness type monster. I have read two other of his travel books. In all three cases he travels up a river in a remote area (Borneo, South America, Africa)with at least one companion who seems spectacularly unsuited to the trip. O’Hanlon can be somewhat self indulgent a writer at times, but this one is mostly quite interesting. It contains a lot of comparison about the Western vs. African perception of reality, the supernatural, religion, history, conservation, etc. And he does have a knack for characterization. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/43 "2002-03-29T03:31:56Z")
I just finished reading _I Dare_ by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller and _Sea of Sorrows_ by Michelle West. I’m almost finished with _The Skies of Pern_ and have just started _The Gambler’s Fortune_ and _Snow Crash_. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/44 "2002-03-29T03:57:28Z")
Huck Finn War and Peace ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/45 "2002-03-29T03:59:45Z")
Recently wrapped up **More, Now, Again** by Elizabeth Wurtzel and have since moved onto **The Body Artist** by Don Delillo. I liked the Wurtzel book better. Colin ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/46 "2002-03-29T04:11:35Z")
Right now, I’m working on _The Left Hand of Darkness_ by Ursula LeGuin and _Many Waters_ by Madeleine L’Engle. Tomorrow, probably, I’ll start rereading _A Ring of Endless Light_ by Madeleine L’Engle. The LeGuin book is just…weird. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to finish it. I’m halfway through and it’s starting to bog down. jessica ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/47 "2002-03-29T04:18:18Z")
Bill James’ revised _Baseball Abstract_ (I’m halfway through the third basemen) and _Broadsides_ a history of 18th & 19th century fighting sail. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/48 "2002-03-29T04:34:26Z")
Titan (biography of John D. Rockefeller) - Ron Chernow Goedel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter ---
**Author:** ![DarkWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@DarkWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkWriter)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/49 "2002-03-29T06:55:13Z")
_Lethal Marriage_ by Nick Pron. I saw it mentioned in another thread and decided to give it a read. Interesting story so far, but I haven’t gotten to the hideous parts yet. Sheri ---
**Author:** ![kase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@kase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kase)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/50 "2002-03-29T10:51:18Z")
awwww \*\*kambuckta \*\* Good luck on the essays. Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![annieclaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@annieclaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annieclaus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/51 "2002-03-29T19:00:29Z")
THE NANNY DIARIES. Very funny. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/52 "2002-03-30T21:17:25Z")
A Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. Jaw-dropping adventure and great writing, with lots of humor. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears – one of those books that make me wish my brain were bigger so I could retain more. ---
**Author:** ![Denis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/53 "2002-03-30T22:51:41Z")
Just finished _Venus on the Halfshell_ by Kilgore Trout. Actually, Philip Jose Farmer wrote it. I don’t think it’s published anymore, though. My older bro got it for me (second hand) through [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) as a birthday gift. Debating whether to reread _The Masked Rider_ by Neil Peart, _The Story of English_ by McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil, or get copies of some books in this thread that I _haven’t_ read yet. I’m particularly interested in _God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian!_, by Vonnegut, _Inferno_, by Pournelle and Niven, and _Everything’s Eventual_, by King, all authors I enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/54 "2002-03-31T00:23:58Z")
Just finished _Bad Astronomy_ by an SDMBer, _Torpedoed_ by Edmond Pope, and _What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response_ by Bernard Lewis. Currently I’m reading _Don’t Get Duped_ and _Warrior Women_. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/55 "2002-03-31T02:38:57Z")
just finished: area 7 (very, very, good) love greg and lauren (very good) the last precinct (okay) nearly finished: the pursuit (okay) ---
**Author:** ![Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/73ab20/32.png) [@Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caesar_s_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/56 "2002-03-31T04:18:26Z")
Currently, I just decided to skip over _A Tribe Apart_ by Patricia Hersch because I don’t feel like reading about adolescent culture just right now, and am instead engrossed in Daniel McNeil’s _The Face_. And I also just finished _Animal Dreams_, by Barbara Kingsolver, which I highly recommend. (Can’t say about the others, having not finished them yet.) ---
**Author:** ![shagadelicmysteryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@shagadelicmysteryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shagadelicmysteryman)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/57 "2002-03-31T04:28:18Z")
Well, I got myself onto this Lit binge I can’t quite seem to get off of. I’ve been working on: “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger and soon I’m gonna start on “On the Beach” by Neville Shute Finally, seeing as how I’m starting college, and am going to have all those international politics and history classes, I’ve decided that it was a good idea to hit Barnes and [Noble.com](http://Noble.com) . I ordered: “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx. No, I’m not communist…geez!:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/58 "2002-03-31T05:14:20Z")
I got Marx for Beginners because it’s a hell of alot easier to read. I’ve just thumbed through it so far. Anyway, I’ve abandoned the Philip K. Dick book and am now reading the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I’ve been bad and looked ahead a little bit. Needless to say, I really want to get through it. There are some awesome characters/dialogue here. I just wish the prose wasn’t like swimming in mud! ehehe ---
**Author:** ![ndorward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@ndorward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ndorward)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/59 "2002-03-31T06:00:25Z")
Pynchon’s _Mason & Dixon_. Which is turning out a pleasant surprise, in that I find it quite enjoyable. However much I respect _Gravity’s Rainbow_, I found many swathes of it a terrible slog, & so I was expecting _Mason & Dixon_ to be a similar tussle to get through. Also, an interesting but very opaque book of prose poetry, Peter Larkin’s _Terrain Seed Scarcity_ (try combining the respective difficulties of Heidegger & Zukofsky & you begin to approach those of Larkin, who is influenced by both of them, along with Wordsworth & Geoffrey Hartman), which I’m determined to work through to write a review of it; & Perry Anderson’s _English Questions_. & a bunch of poems submitted to a journal I edit, most of which I’m going to reject. & reading out loud a large array of kid’s books to Anne, our 4-year-old (Rosemary Wells & Penelope Lively are current favourites). ---
**Author:** ![croaker67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@croaker67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/croaker67)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509/60 "2002-03-31T06:20:47Z")
I’ve started and haven’t stopped laughing at Christopher Moore’s “LAMB, the gospel according to Biff, Christ’s childhood pal” Too funny… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-reading/100509.md?page=4)