# Whatcha Readin' August 09 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2009, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858 "2009-07-31T10:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/41 "2009-08-06T13:47:46Z")
I finished the last 150 pages of _Fevre Dream_ in one fell swoop last night. What amazingly complex characters! Martin addressed one of the things that constantly bother me about vampire stories: The incredible self-loathing all vampires seem to have for themselves. Even at the height of his misery, Joshua didn’t want to destroy all the other night creatures. He didn’t blame Julian’s sadism on the fact that he was a vampire or killed humans… he blamed it on the fact that Julian was bat(heh)-shit crazy. ---
**Author:** ![ProfessorX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@ProfessorX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProfessorX)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/42 "2009-08-06T19:48:57Z")
Starting up Moneyball finally. It’s been sitting on my shelf for along time despite tons of recommendations, so I finally decided to bite the bullet and read 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:** [August 7, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/43 "2009-08-07T14:10:16Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > I’m SO bad at putting down books and force myself to wade through them. Not me! I feel like I’ve ditched half the books I started this year. I’ve just abandoned Spent (probably good, but I couldn’t get into it), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (it was making me want to punch someone). I started another book, but I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut until I see if I’m really going to read the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/44 "2009-08-07T16:01:31Z")
I’ve started Mary Roach’s **Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife**. I’m mainly reading it because I enjoyed her book **Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers**. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/45 "2009-08-07T16:51:43Z")
I finished my audiobook, “The Almost Moon” by Alice Seabold. I liked it, but it wasn’t great. I started “Dear John” by Nicholas Sparks today. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/46 "2009-08-07T18:04:55Z")
Finished _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle. While I appreciate his way with words, I felt a bit guilty for not appreciating the story more. It was sad and sweet and humorous in spots, but I expected to be blown away, and I wasn’t. Me = peasant, I guess. I’m leaving for Seattle today, on the train, three nights/two days. Taking _Middlemarch_ and the Ironbrand trilogy by John Morressy. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/47 "2009-08-07T18:15:44Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I’ve started Mary Roach’s **Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife**. I’m mainly reading it because I enjoyed her book **Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers**. I didn’t enjoy **Spook** quite as much as **Stiff** , I think because there’s really so little in defensible science that has investigated life after death. I mean, I enjoy “bad” science, but I’d prefer good scientific method in looking into that bad science. Plus, in **Spook** , she has no occasion for using the phrase “Do Me Chicken.” Still, I’m looking forward to **Bonk**. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/48 "2009-08-07T19:09:56Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Finished _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle. While I appreciate his way with words, I felt a bit guilty for not appreciating the story more. It was sad and sweet and humorous in spots, but I expected to be blown away, and I wasn’t. Me = peasant, I guess. I felt the same. Maybe if we’d read it at a different age… ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/49 "2009-08-07T19:26:12Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I felt the same. Maybe if we’d read it at a different age… Thanks. That makes me feel better. I loved his “baggy birds” though. I won’t look at the doves in the yard without thinking “baggy birds”. Now that I think about it, I wasn’t all that impressed with _A Fine and Private Place_ either. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/50 "2009-08-07T19:46:33Z")
I remember liking Tamsin, but at this late date I couldn’t tell you why. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/51 "2009-08-07T20:03:32Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I didn’t enjoy **Spook** quite as much as **Stiff** , I think because there’s really so little in defensible science that has investigated life after death. I mean, I enjoy “bad” science, but I’d prefer good scientific method in looking into that bad science. > > Plus, in **Spook** , she has no occasion for using the phrase “Do Me Chicken.” > > Still, I’m looking forward to **Bonk**. I think this sums up quite well why I didn’t like _Spook_ as much as \*Stiff \*or _Bonk_. I do like typing all those words though. ---
**Author:** ![Other\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Other\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Other_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/52 "2009-08-07T20:04:26Z")
I am enjoying Michael Lawrence’s, _Withern Rise Trilogy_. I have finished the first, _A Crack in the Line_ and am now onto _Small Eternities_. I like his naming conventions for both titles and characters, personally. His writing is pretty good, as far as modern fantasy writers are concerned. Mmm, that’s it. ~S.P.I.~ ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/53 "2009-08-07T21:16:34Z")
I recently finished George MacDonald Fraser’s _Royal Flash_, the second installment of the Flashman series. I really enjoyed it – has anyone catalogued and tracked the various euphemisms for sex that Fraser has Flashy employ in his various romps through the sheets (not so many in this one, I have to say!)? The third one will have to wait a bit, though. I’ve also made use of some time off for some frivolous reading and re-reading: Jeff Smith’s complete _Bone_. I’m still in love with this comic – the best graphic novel I’ve read so far. In which best means “enjoyable” – _Watchmen_ or _The Dark Knight Returns_ are rather deeper. Oliver Sacks’s _Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain_. Enjoyable. A bit rambling, and rather unconnected, and not exactly shot through with explanations. But a good read. H.P. Willmott’s _The Last Century of Sea Power_. THe first volume. I’m ambivalent about it – it’s interesting as always for Willmott’s analysis, but it could have done with an editor, or a better editor. I’m currently reading: Richard Matheson’s _I am Legend_. Very good. Will be done tomorrow, I think, as it is so short, but it’s an interesting book, and much better than the film. H.P. Lovecraft’s _Omnibus III_. This has “The Call of Cthulhu”, which is pretty good, I have to say – much better than the stuff in the other anthology I read. I’m looking forward to a number of other stories in that collection. Still, James Fenimore Cooper’s _The Pilot_. It’s just not Matheson, and so is slow going… ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/54 "2009-08-07T21:21:15Z")
Re-reading HST’s _Proud Highway: Saga Of A Desperate Southern Gentleman_. I love the peek inside Hunter’s personality with all his personal letters. It’s amazing that he kept carbon copies of them all to be compiled, quite frankly. He’s extremely entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/55 "2009-08-08T00:41:36Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Re-reading HST’s _Proud Highway: Saga Of A Desperate Southern Gentleman_. > > I love the peek inside Hunter’s personality with all his personal letters. It’s amazing that he kept carbon copies of them all to be compiled, quite frankly. > > He’s extremely entertaining. I read the first volume of that, covering 1955-67, but not subsequent ones. (Or was there only one sequel?) I especially liked the letter he sent out to creditors to get them off his back, in which he made like a demented disease carrier. As I recall, he claimed it worked lots of times. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/56 "2009-08-08T01:01:08Z")
_Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa_ by R.A. Scotti. This seemed to be getting a lot of press, but I was disappointed. The story of the theft of the Mona Lisa is interesting, but wow, the writing here was terrible. Read the wikipedia article instead. - The Intuitionist\* by Colson Whitehead. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but I ended up liking it a lot. I’m not sure there’s a good way to describe it that doesn’t make it sound awful … it’s set in a alternate reality version of NYC, and there’s a crime involving elevator inspectors who have this crazy organization that’s like a combo of a medieval guild and a Samuel Gompers union, and it’s about race and integration. Just started _The Whiskey Rebels,_ which is a historical mystery that takes place right after the American Revolution. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/57 "2009-08-08T02:44:33Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > …I’m SO bad at putting down books and force myself to wade through them. I’ll try. 🙂 … My book club has adopted a quasi-rule: if the book hasn’t hooked you after 50 pages, put it down and walk away, guilt-free. It very likely won’t get any better. Life’s too short to force yourself to the end of a book you don’t have to read and that you hate anyway. **AuntiePam** , I read _The Last Unicorn_ in high school and was also underwhelmed. I’ve felt no desire to give it another try. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/58 "2009-08-08T04:15:51Z")
I finished The Hobbit, humored myself by picking up The Silmarillion, then promptly put it down after another failed attempt at reading it and now I’m reading Lord of the Rings. I’ll probably read The Wizard of Oz after that, if I can find it at the library. ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/59 "2009-08-08T05:23:55Z")
Amy Tan’s _The Opposite of Fate_ - Her first nonfiction work that shares her thoughts on how she escaped the expectations of her past and created her own destiny. She contemplates how things happen (in her life and beyond) but always returns to the question of fate and its opposites: choices, influences, attitudes, and lucky accidents that shape us all. Tan’s fictional works have never made an impression on me, but I feel like I should reread them now that I have more insight on the author. Dai Sijie’s _Balzac et La Petite Tailleuse Chinoise_ - I reread this book by the same author of _Le Complexe de Di_. It follows two teenage boys going through “re-education” as Mao’s Cultural Revolution swept through China. They come across a suitcase of western literature that ferrets them into a vast world of grandiose ideals, passion, and love and illusion. English title is: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858/60 "2009-08-08T23:19:39Z")
I just started _Cloud Atlas_. The first story ends mid-sentence at the bottom of the page - if I hadn’t known ahead of time the book was going to consist of nested stories, I would have thought it was a misprint. I’m on the third story now, and so far I like it very much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-09-edition/504858.md?page=4)