# Whatcha Readin' Dec 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466 "2010-11-30T21:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [December 29, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/101 "2010-12-29T04:04:49Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > A made-up word he used in a recent bomb, _Lisey’s Story_. It’s nearly unreadable. Hmmm. Well, what does it mean in context, then? ---
**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 29, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/102 "2010-12-29T15:12:42Z")
A dumb substitute for “fucking”. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/103 "2010-12-29T18:20:18Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > A dumb substitute for “fucking”. In the sense of “that guy is a smucking idiot!” not "So the other day, I was smucking this dude … " It was dumb after one page … and it’s a long book. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/104 "2010-12-30T00:47:44Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > To the Doper just plunging into _Gödel, Escher, Bach_: Have fun! It’s amazing how much of the material is fresh today, despite evolving computer technology. Don’t get too hung up on the tougher theoretical mathematics – I’m terrible at that stuff, but I still enjoyed every chapter, and digested what I could. I’m liking it so far. I’m only on page 60 or thereabouts. I’m away from home and decided not to bring it on the trip and I regret that a little. My boyfriend got me all of the MM Kaye mysteries for Christmas, so they will probably take precedence over everything else for a while. 🙂 Also just finished book 1 of the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb. Love her. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/105 "2010-12-30T02:05:32Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > A dumb substitute for “fucking”. Ooookay. Yet another reason not to read that book. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/106 "2010-12-30T05:14:56Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Finished “The Plague of Doves”. Now reading Bryson’s “Notes From a Small Island”. Finished the Bryson book. Now reading a trash novel called “_Brimstone_”. Not bad so far, but it was tough getting started, and some of the writing is a bit juvenile. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/107 "2010-12-30T15:08:07Z")
Just read _JFK Day by Day_ by Terry Golway and Les Krantz, a well-illustrated chronological history of the Kennedy Administration. A bit superficial, a few minor factual errors, but pretty interesting overall. ---
**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 30, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/108 "2010-12-30T15:19:41Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > My current book is Running the Books : the adventures of an accidental prison librarian by Avi Steinberg. Seems a fine book, but at my current reading rate of approximately ten minutes a week, I may never finish. It’s already overdue and the rest of the TBR pile will be soon. I hate it when this happens. :mad: I had to ditch this, as I am drowning in overdue books. So I’m plunging into _Monsters of Men_ by Patrick Ness, the juiciest thing in my TBR pile. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/109 "2010-12-30T16:20:00Z")
My very first Kindle purchase: _What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng_ by Dave Eggers. It is the very touching, funny, horrific story of one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/110 "2010-12-30T16:48:48Z")
My first Kindle purchase is _Cutting for Stone_, by Abraham Verghese. I’m almost finished with it. My favorite Kindle feature so far is the ability to bookmark passages and make notes. You can publish those quoted passages to Twitter or Facebook, which I don’t want to do, but I would like to figure out how to post them to Goodreads. Passages like: “I am convinced that one can buy in Harrods of London a kit that allows an enterprising Englishman to create a British school anywhere in the third world. It comes with black robes, preprinted report cards for Michaelmas, Lent, and Easter terms, as well as hymnals, Prefect Badges, and a syllabus. Assembly required.” It’s a really fascinating book about a half Indian, half British boy who is born under dramatic circumstances in Ethiopia and is raised by a couple of doctors at a missionary hospital. He grows up in Ethiopia and becomes a surgeon himself, and eventually ends up practicing at a hospital in a poor neighborhood in New York. There’s a lot of melodrama, but the writing is excellent and the medical stuff is very interesting. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/111 "2010-12-30T16:59:40Z")
Thoughts on Kindles: I’m on a train in central Vietnam this past April. Young British couple across the aisle to my right. I’m reading a standard book. They’re each reading their own Kindle. We pass through tunnels at intervals. I have to stop reaing because it’s friggin’ dark. They keep reading. Hmmm. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/112 "2010-12-30T17:03:32Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Thoughts on Kindles: I’m on a train in central Vietnam this past April. Young British couple across the aisle to my right. I’m reading a standard book. They’re each reading their own Kindle. We pass through tunnels at intervals. I have to stop reaing because it’s friggin’ dark. They keep reading. Hmmm. Do Kindles automatically get brighter or darker depending on ambient light? ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/113 "2010-12-30T17:08:32Z")
Their’s did. I think it’s probably a standard backlight that’s not noticeable in regular light. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/114 "2010-12-30T18:17:41Z")
Kindles aren’t backlit, but you can buy covers with lights in them. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/115 "2010-12-30T18:20:14Z")
_Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History_ by Yunte Huang, a Chinese-born American scholar who attended graduate school in Alabama and earned his Ph.D. at SUNY-Buffalo, taught American literature at Harvard and now is a professor of English at UC-Santa Barbara. It’s a fascinating perspective and very well written. I really like this guy. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/116 "2010-12-30T18:35:34Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > _Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History_ by Yunte Huang, a Chinese-born American scholar who attended graduate school in Alabama and earned his Ph.D. at SUNY-Buffalo, taught American literature at Harvard and now is a professor of English at UC-Santa Barbara. It’s a fascinating perspective and very well written. I really like this guy. I heard his interview on NPR - it was very interesting. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/117 "2010-12-30T19:00:48Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Kindles aren’t backlit, but you can buy covers with lights in them. That must be what they had. Because there were only their two rectangles of light until we emerged from the tunnels. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/118 "2010-12-31T03:37:04Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > It’s a really fascinating book about a half Indian, half British boy who is born under dramatic circumstances in Ethiopia and is raised by a couple of doctors at a missionary hospital. He grows up in Ethiopia and becomes a surgeon himself, and eventually ends up practicing at a hospital in a poor neighborhood in New York. There’s a lot of melodrama, but the writing is excellent and the medical stuff is very interesting. This was a favorite of mine this year too. It would have made the top ten, but Sister Mary Joseph Praise left too soon – I wanted more about her. The characters were all so richly detailed – I didn’t want to leave any of their stories. I’m re-reading _The Deptford Trilogy_ by Robertson Davies. It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten everything. One of the benefits of a poor memory, I guess. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/119 "2010-12-31T03:40:10Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I heard his interview on NPR - it was very interesting. I’d love to hear it. Maybe I can find it on [NPR.org](http://NPR.org). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466/120 "2010-12-31T10:48:06Z")
A link to Jan’s [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13303315#post13303315). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2010-edition/562466.md?page=7)