# Whatcha Readin' Feb 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171 "2010-01-31T23:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/101 "2010-02-21T13:43:42Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > After weeks – months? – where I wasn’t reading anything worth writing home about, I’m about 100 pages into Mark Helprin’s _Winter’s Tale_. A bit slow starting, but I’m into it now. > > This is the third of his books I’ve read, due to **koeeoaddi** ’s passionate love for _A Soldier of the Great War_, which I liked, though I thought it fell apart in the last 100 pages. I also read _Antproof Case_ (not the exact title, but I’m too lazy to look it up) and liked it but didn’t love it. > > Helprin’s stuff is weird – it’s not exactly the world we live in, but it’s not exactly not the world we live in. Other than having heard the term “magical realism,” I don’t know what it means – is he an exemplar? I recently tried to read this but had to give up. It mostly had to do with it being clumsily translated (into Swedish), and the layout being a massive wall of text. I’ll see if I can find it in English and hope that it’s easier to read. From what I read, I’d say that the novel is a good example of magical realism. It’s a hazy area, some meaning that magical realism is really a branch of fantasy. I have a sneaking suspicion that in Sweden it’s also used to prevent a writer from falling into the fantasy category, which isn’t an accepted “literary” genre here. It depends on who you ask. But there’s a long tradition of magical realism in South America. Check out Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Marquez, and Isabel Allende for example. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/102 "2010-02-21T19:04:04Z")
Recently finished: _Great Plains_, by Ian Frazier. It’s like … more Ian Frazier, if you like him. You know, essays about Indians and small towns. In kid fiction, I read: _The Nine Pound Hammer_, by John Claude Bemis. Kinda fun fantasy set in the late 19th century, with a lot of American folklore (the title is referring to John Henry’s hammer, for example) worked into the plot. It’s supposedly the first in a trilogy. The premise was terrific, the execution was fair to middling. _The Stolen One_, by Suzanne Crowley. YA, Elizabethan-era romantic adventure. A teenage girl from the country becomes one of the Queen’s ladies in waiting. There are a lot of swoony parts over boys, also dresses. Now that I think back on it, this is a very girly book. It wasn’t great, but I was engaged the entire time I was reading. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/103 "2010-02-21T20:06:12Z")
Finished _The Fortune of War_, the 6th (?) Aubrey-Maturin. Joe Hill’s new book _Horns_ arrived but I’m letting my daughter read it first. Almost finished with the _Wastelands_ anthology (tales of the apocalypse) – it’s a nice mix, and no clunkers. I’m well into _Black Hills_, Dan Simmon’s latest, and it’s a good example of excellent writing but a story that doesn’t go where I want it to go. I might finish it, but if the book vanished in a puff of smoke, I wouldn’t care. I’m only reading it because the next batch of Aubrey-Maturins haven’t arrived yet. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/104 "2010-02-21T21:25:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …Next up: Twain’s comic story _The £1,000,000 Bank Note_. Just finished this, as well as two other Twain essays in the same collection, “About All Kinds of Ships” and “A Petition to the Queen of England.” “The £1,000,000 Bank Note” is a very funny short story about a bet between two wealthy brothers (shades of the movie _Trading Places_) in Victorian London, as to whether or not a man will return a huge bank note after 30 days. Everyone upon seeing the note is eager to befriend him and to extend credit, so he does very well for himself, including winning the heart of a beautiful girl who turns out to be the daughter of one of the betting brothers! In “About All Kinds of Ships,” Twain praises modern passenger liners and compares them unfavorably to the smaller, less-comfortable ships he’d sailed upon earlier in his career; he includes a funny imagined discussion between a shipping inspector and Noah about the Ark. In “A Petition to the Queen of England,” Twain, with a purposefully overfamiliar tone, asks Her Majesty if she wouldn’t mind refunding a tax he’d paid on books of his that had been published in Great Britain. Next on my reading stack: _Hell to Pay_ by D.M. Giangreco, about Allied plans for invading Japan at the end of WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/105 "2010-02-22T00:33:06Z")
I started [Leviathan](http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Scott-Westerfeld/dp/1416971734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266798662&sr=8-1) by Scott Westerfeld this morning and just finished it. I loved it. I would say it was as good as _Hunger Games_ for an awesome imaginative story and a really strong female character. I love YA fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/106 "2010-02-22T07:12:55Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > Dan Simmons’s _Drood_. Got it for five bucks and remembered the recommendations here (weren’t they a bit mixed?). The book has its lengths, that’s for sure, but Simmons also certainly knows how to keep a mystery alive and well, at least into the 280 or so pages I’m in. I’m through with this. I am quite impressed by the technical aspects of it – it was a very well-constructed book. And I also quite enjoyed the last three hundered pages or so, with Simmons picking up the pace some. I’m ambivalent about the ending. It did not as neatly follow out of the story as I would have wished it. Oh well; it was certainly worth the time spent on it. I also did finish Alison Bechdel’s _Fun Home_, which is just great and highly recommended. Now, because I liked him so much as a character, Wilkie Collins’s _The Moonstone_. Thanks to _Drood_ I already know how it ends, but so far it’s still a good read. ---
**Author:** ![Clawdio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/107 "2010-02-22T19:34:27Z")
About to finish the second book Brandon Sanderson’s **Mistborn** series. I’m very much enjoying it. Great mix of fantasy/politics/relationships/religion. The second book started painfully slow (too many chapters reminding me of the groundwork laid in the first book), but was really enjoyable once it picked up some steam. Can’t wait to start the third book tonight or tomorrow. ---
**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:** [February 23, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/108 "2010-02-23T13:27:40Z")
Finished Flow, it was pretty good. Breezed through The Man in the Picture: A ghost story, by Susan Hill. It was only 145 pages long, and the story itself was nothing special, but if you like the flavor of a good old fashioned English supernatural tale, she gets it just right. I’m just beginning on The Sociopath Next Door: the ruthless versus the rest of us, by Martha Stout. According to this book, one in every 25 people is completely without conscience. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/109 "2010-02-23T13:30:38Z")
Just finished “Dangerously Funny” the story of the Smothers Brothers. Very good read if you are at all interested in the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/110 "2010-02-23T13:34:20Z")
And working through some of the Playboy Interviews: Directors. Disappointed that some of the Directors, notably Kubrik and Welles, didn’t really talk much about movies. Kubrick comes of as a bit of a nutjob, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/111 "2010-02-23T13:40:53Z")
Also in the middle of “The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey”, the version that has chapters by Clarke, Kubrick, Duellea and others. Pretty good so far. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/112 "2010-02-23T15:49:45Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’m just beginning on The Sociopath Next Door: the ruthless versus the rest of us, by Martha Stout. According to this book, one in every 25 people is completely without conscience. About five years ago, I clipped one of those two line book reviews from a magazine about this book, and paper-clipped it to my book journal, but never got around to reading it. I’m dying to hear if it’s good! ---
**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:** [February 23, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/113 "2010-02-23T16:00:25Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Also in the middle of “The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey”, the version that has chapters by Clarke, Kubrick, Duellea and others. Pretty good so far. That’s a great book. I esp. liked the snippets of various movie reviews, each of which described the decor of Bowman’s room at the end as being of a different historical style, and seeing a legible copy of the directions for operating the zero-G toilet. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/114 "2010-02-23T23:28:15Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I read _Those Who Hunt the Night_, by Barbara Hambly, which is a historical murder mystery with vampires - evil, murderous vampires, not sparkly romance vampires. It’s set in London and Paris in 1907, and it was very well written. I’ll have to look for more by Hambly. Thanks for recommending this! It arrived today and so far, it’s the best vampire fiction I’ve read since _Fevre Dream_. (I’m picturing Brendan Fraser as Asher and the guy who played Haldir in LotR as Ysidro.) ---
**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:** [February 24, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/115 "2010-02-24T00:00:14Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Thanks for recommending this! It arrived today and so far, it’s the best vampire fiction I’ve read since _Fevre Dream_… I’m always pleased when I hear of someone else who liked George R.R. Martin’s _Fevre Dream_. It’s one of my faves. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/116 "2010-02-24T00:51:11Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Thanks for recommending this! It arrived today and so far, it’s the best vampire fiction I’ve read since _Fevre Dream_. (I’m picturing Brendan Fraser as Asher and the guy who played Haldir in LotR as Ysidro.) Glad you like it! I’ve just ordered the sequel, along with a couple of other Hambly novels that the book seller happened to have in stock. I’ll let you know if it’s as good. Speaking of picturing actors when you’re reading, have you seen the new mass-market paperback covers for Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series? You can see them on his blog [here](http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2010/02/interview-with-artist.html). I don’t much care for the picture of Ninefingers on the first one, but I really like the second cover, which pictures Glokta. He looks like Paul Bettany, much worse for wear. I wish I had been picturing him as Bettany when I was reading the books. (I picture Stephen Maturin as Paul Bettany despite O’Brian’s strenuous attempts to convince me that Stephen is scrawny and dark and unattractive.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/117 "2010-02-24T01:34:33Z")
The guy on the second cover looks nothing like I picture Glokta. Where’s the deformity? He’s supposed to be a twisted wreck. And why the short hair? He looks like a character from Trainspotting. I’m okay with Ninefingers on the first cover – he’s got that Viggo/Aragorn thing goin’ on, and that dude-I-forgot-his-name on the third is pretty much how I pictured him. But yeah, the artwork for Glokta could definitely be Maturin, if Maturin had any heft. Maturin is tall but thin, isn’t he? Do you picture Bettany as Maturin because of the movie? ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/118 "2010-02-24T12:18:30Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > That’s a great book. I esp. liked the snippets of various movie reviews, each of which described the decor of Bowman’s room at the end as being of a different historical style, and seeing a legible copy of the directions for operating the zero-G toilet. 😃 I believe you are thinking of a different, much older book. This is a relatively new book that has no photos or graphics. Both are good, but different. It’s kind of confusing, because they share the same title. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/119 "2010-02-24T14:11:32Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > The guy on the second cover looks nothing like I picture Glokta. Where’s the deformity? He’s supposed to be a twisted wreck. And why the short hair? He looks like a character from Trainspotting. > > I’m okay with Ninefingers on the first cover – he’s got that Viggo/Aragorn thing goin’ on, and that dude-I-forgot-his-name on the third is pretty much how I pictured him. > > But yeah, the artwork for Glokta could definitely be Maturin, if Maturin had any heft. Maturin is tall but thin, isn’t he? > > Do you picture Bettany as Maturin because of the movie? Yes, I saw the movie before I read the books, and Bettany stuck in my head. I think Stephen is supposed to be short and wiry, but maybe he’s just short in comparison with Jack. I think his weight is given one time as 9 stone. He’s described sometimes as pale, but he tans very dark in the sun when he gets the opportunity. In the Abercrombie books I kept picturing Glokta as old, but he’s actually fairly young, and was good-looking before his ordeal. So it makes sense to me that he’d look handsome from some angles, in poor light, and in a careful pose like the cover of the book. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/120 "2010-02-24T14:28:19Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > Yes, I saw the movie before I read the books, and Bettany stuck in my head. I think Stephen is supposed to be short and wiry, but maybe he’s just short in comparison with Jack. I think his weight is given one time as 9 stone. He’s described sometimes as pale, but he tans very dark in the sun when he gets the opportunity. I thought Stephen was supposed to be short and wiry too, but in the last book I read someone describes him as tall, so now I’m confused. 🙂 In addition to the Hambly, I’m reading a James M. Cain collection, _The Baby in the Icebox_. I didn’t know anything about Cain except that he wrote stories that two great movies were based on, _The Postman Always Rings Twice_ and _Double Indemnity_. Some of the stories in this collection are surprisingly funny, if a bit dark. The book has a lot of biographical info. I didn’t know that Cain’s full-length novels weren’t successful, or that he tried to be a screenwriter but didn’t do well at it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171.md?page=7)