# Whatcha readin' gang? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644 "2005-04-29T00:12:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/1 "2005-04-29T00:12:36Z")
It is time once again to let dopers know what you are reading. I love these threads because I always get a few good ideas (even though I have 10 in the queue.) I had an endoscopy last Friday and spent all day waiting to get in, so I read two books last weekend. One: [The Night Calls](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312291043/qid=1114732831/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9570489-7181518) a Sherlock Holmes tribute by David Pirie. I enjoy David Pirie’s work, although I was disappointed with the ending. Also [The Magicians’ Guild](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006057528X/qid=1114732990/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-9570489-7181518?v=glance&s=books) which was a quick read and an fair start to a new trilogy. (Must all fantasies be trilogies?) I am now reading [The Rule of Four](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385337116/qid=1114733017/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9570489-7181518) by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I will steal a line from the review on Amazon because I agree with it: > [@](#): > > Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason’s book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. Still, I am half way through the book and we have not yet gotten into the meat of the “conspiracy.” Sunday’s are reserved for my “deep” reading, which can mean philosopy, religion, science and sometimes even “money” books. I have had [On Intelligence](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805074562/qid=1114733365/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9570489-7181518) in the queue for ages and this Sunday I will start it. Based on a recent Dope thread, it should be quite good. While I excercise I am listening to [Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060987103/qid=1114733464/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9570489-7181518). I just started it and due to some health issues it isn’t getting the play time it should (I should be excersising more…) That’s it for me. What are the rest of you reading? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/2 "2005-04-29T00:37:30Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I am now reading [The Rule of Four](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385337116/qid=1114733017/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9570489-7181518) by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I will steal a line from the review on Amazon because I agree with it: Still, I am half way through the book and we have not yet gotten into the meat of the “conspiracy.” Sounds similar to the book I’m almost finished with – **Gospel** by Wilton Barnhardt. The conspiracy is a teensy part of the story, which is full of fascinating historical and religious stuff. It’s really a character study – the conspiracy isn’t at all necessary. I’m loving it. I have an Amazon gift certificate, and I’ve had good luck with writers named Ian, so maybe I’ll use it for The Rule of Four. Next up for me is **King’s Row** by Henry Bellaman. I have a TBR bookcase sorted alphabetically, and am resolved to read from it before buying any more books. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/3 "2005-04-29T01:10:43Z")
Just finished [_The Blank Slate_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142003344/qid=1114736895/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-8388086-3622309?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). Very thought-provoking – very, very dense. I’m gonna leap with both feet on the book I picked up at the library last night: [_The Paid Companion_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0515138649/qid=1114737018/sr=8-4/ref=pd_csp_4/104-8388086-3622309?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). What can I say? I love Regency romances – the "Amanda Quick"s are much racier than the standard entries in the genre. The Pinker took me a week and a half – I’m thinking I’ll be done with this by, oh, Saturday morning. After all, I have to work tomorrow… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/4 "2005-04-29T01:42:15Z")
I’m currently re-reading **[A Canticle for Leibowitz](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553379267/qid=1114739070/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-4809946-8740739?v=glance&n=507846)** by Walter M. Miller. A great post-apocalyptic novel about the cyclical nature of human-nature, it’s always been one of my top recommendations for other people to read. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/5 "2005-04-29T01:49:32Z")
[A Deepness In the Sky:](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812536355/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-7456597-3844914?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) So, so good. If you have not read it, go out and get it _now_. Unless, of course, you haven’t read [A Fire Upon the Deep](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812515285/qid=1114739166/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-7456597-3844914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), which is even better; you should read that first. [A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century:](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345349571/qid=1114739271/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-7456597-3844914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) Still slogging through this a few pages at a time as bedtime reading. It’s not bad. I’m just kind of low on brain power these days. It’s all running together, I’m afraid. Blah blah blah Pope, blah blah blah war, blah blah blah plague. Hmmm. Kind of like the evening news, but without the presciption drug commercials. 😉 [The Thurber Carnival:](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060932872/qid=1114739305/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-7456597-3844914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) Bathroom reading. It’s quaint. In the hopper: the next Hugo novel on my list, [A Case of Conscience](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345438353/qid=1114739409/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-7456597-3844914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/6 "2005-04-29T01:52:13Z")
At long last I finished off Neal Stephenson’s _Baroque Cycle_ while on a cross-country plane ride on Sunday. Now I feel like re-reading _Cryptonomicon_ to catch all the references I missed. Now in the midst of T.C. Boyle’s latest bit of historical fiction, _The Inner Circle_. The Circle refers to the people around Dr. Kinsey of gall wasp and sex survey fame. It is written as a memoir of one of the members of the circle after the death of Kinsey. Great stuff as usual from Boyle. ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_Jass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@Hugh\_Jass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_Jass)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/7 "2005-04-29T02:32:29Z")
I’m reading Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything” It’s a science/history book. It mixes sections on how various scientific disciplines came into being with a general history of that subject. Bryson is an excellent writer. He’s written mostly travel narratives in the past (that I’m aware of) and they are quite funny and informative. His humor is evident here too, and doesn’t crowd out the science. He makes the science relatively easy to understand. He uses the “If you stacked dollar bills from here to the moon, it would be worth $800 trillion dollars before you left the earth’s atmosphere” kind of description a lot, which I like. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/8 "2005-04-29T03:12:16Z")
I’m on pins and needles waiting for my husband to come home from Afghanistan so I’m reading pure, unadulterated fluff. I’m reading **YaYa’s in Bloom** which is the third book by Rebecca Wells **(Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood** and **Little Alters Everywhere)** ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/9 "2005-04-29T03:15:01Z")
a nice little entertaining read: est2 systems application manual. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/10 "2005-04-29T03:32:43Z")
RE-reading the Harry Potter books, so I’ll be ready when the next one comes out in July. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/11 "2005-04-29T03:33:41Z")
I dropped _Vanity Fair_ halfway through about two months ago, thanks to a hideously heavy workload. I’m going to pick it up sometime in the next few days, though. I’ve mostly been reading plays: reviving my crush on Hotspur with “Henry IV, Part One,” and being hammed by “Incident at Vichy.” ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/12 "2005-04-29T03:38:23Z")
Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven”. Kind of a frightening thing that’s going to keep me from dropping casually in to Utah anytime too soon. He’s heavier on drama than he is on in-depth reporting, but at the very least he’s going to have me reading more on this topic in the near future. Anyone with a recommendation for a good, readable book on the subject would do me a favor and drop a hint… ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/13 "2005-04-29T03:39:54Z")
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. I’ve wanted to since I saw it at the top of the list of best science fiction works of all time. Now I finally got my hands on a copy. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/14 "2005-04-29T03:53:14Z")
I have problems reading only one thing at a time (maybe its a college thing). So here is what is on my current reading list: I am about half way through 100 years of solitude, and can say without reservation that, thus far, it is the best book I have ever read. Fun, compelling, thought provoking, everything I hope for in a novel. I am also reading Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels (and starting tomorrow Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail). I think there is some sort of law that says you can’t graduate from college without reading something of Hunter Thompson’s. I am also reading Jerzy Grotowsky’s collected writing in Towards a Poor Theater, I am a theater geek and a director so I eat up that stuff like it was candy. Grotowsky has some great ideas about art and theater and would recommend it, but I am honestly not sure how much it will appeal to non theater folk. My reading assignment for class Monday is Threepenny Opera (I am a theater major) and I am looking forward to starting that. (not sure if homework counts or not, but in all honesty that is what I spend most of my time reading) I like Brecht a lot, and have seen Threepenny preformed a few times, but it will be neat to sit and actually study what he was doing with the work on the page. On Audio book I am listening to Brian Jaques Redwall during my commute to school (finding it slightly disappointing but maybe I was expecting too much), and Stranger in a Strange Land before going to sleep (I read it for the first time when I was 13, turns out there was a lot I didn’t get at the time). In the world of comic books I am working my way though Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing and am about halfway through the American Gothic arc. But I just finished the collected Bone and recommend it heartily to anyone who likes to have fun. Next up will be The Joke by Milan Kundera, and Wild Cards Volume 3: Jokers Wild (written by many but compiled and edited by the excellent George RR Martin, I am anxiously awaiting the publication of Feast of Crows) ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/15 "2005-04-29T04:01:29Z")
I’m currently between the covers of: **The Art of Modern Rock** , by Paul Grushkin & Dennis King – heavy on the visuals, but also dense with interesting text. **The Baby Name Wizard** , by Laura Wattenberg – we’ve got a kid coming in September, and I suspect I won’t be done with this book before then. Also check out [the website](http://www.babynamewizard.com) **Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients** , edited by Greta Christina – my “reading about sex work” phase has now lasted about a year, so it’s one mondo phase. The essays get a little repetitive, but they’re still fascinating. **Trading Up: The New American Luxury** , by Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske **Windows on the World** , by Frédéric Beigbeder – the token fiction title, but a good one. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/16 "2005-04-29T04:04:27Z")
_The Pilgrim’s Progress in Modern English_ and a whole bunch of computer programming books. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/17 "2005-04-29T04:09:49Z")
I’ve been going back and reading all the books I was assigned in college but never got to enjoy because I had only days to read and write something on it. Currently it’s the Aeneid. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/18 "2005-04-29T04:46:09Z")
I’m half way through _The Dreamhunters_, Elizabeth Knox’s latest novel. It’s being launched in a few weeks and is being touted as a YA novel, but I’m not seeing that. Not that it’s inappropriate for young adults to read, but it reads like an adult novel. It’s like calling _The Little Friend_ a YA novel, because the protagonist is twelve. Anyway, I’m enjoying it a lot - it’s more similar to _Black Oxen_ than any of her other novels. I just finished _The Dream Merchant_, which I had great fun reading. Another YA novel, set in present-day London and also throughout dreamtime - a concept handled in an original and comprehensible way. I wish I’d read it when I was kid - I would have walked around with my head in the clouds for weeks (more so than I normally did) For light relief I’ve been flicking through _In Other Words_ which is a nice little hardback cashing in on the success of _Shott’s Original Miscellany_ and _Eats, Shoots & Leaves_, and is basically a list of words in other languages that English has no direct translation for. I’ve discovered _razbliuto_, a Russian word that describes the ‘feeling a person has for someone they once loved but no longer feel the same about’. I’m finally going to get around to reading _A Suitable Boy_, because I’ve run out of books to read at work. With about forty-five minutes available to read with each week, it should keep me occupied for some time. On the bus I’m making my way through Apsley Cheery-Gerrad’s _The Worst Journey in the World_, after reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s _Antarctica_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/19 "2005-04-29T05:13:14Z")
I ordered a bunch of books online last week and I’ve been reading them as they get delivered. So far I’ve received: _Battle of the Bulge: Hitler’s Alternate Scenarios_ by Peter Tsouras (ed) _The Crazy Years_ by Spider Robinson _Luftwaffe Victorious_ by Mike Spick _Scams!_ by Andreas Schroeder _Scams, Scandals, and Skulduggery_ also by Andreas Schroeder Still to come: _After the Fact, Volume II_ by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle _Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life_ by Mark Evanier _Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl_ by Tracy Quan _Fakes, Frauds, and Flimflammery_ by Andreas Schroeder _The First Century: Emperors, Gods, and Everyman_ by William Klingaman _From Armageddon to the Fall of Rome: How the Myth Makers Changed the World_ by Erik Durschmied _The Hinges of Battle: How Change and Incompetence Have Changed the Face of History_ by Erik Durschmied _The Hollywood Book of Scandals_ by James Parish _If Britain Had Fallen: The Real Nazi Occupation Plans_ by Norman Longmate _The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry_ by Legs McNeil _Silent Bob Speaks : The Collected Writings_ of Kevin Smith _The Thunder Never Sleeps: The Story of the Waffen Deus Ex Machina_ by Jack Meister _Very Bad Deaths_ by Spider Robinson _What If: Alternative Historical Time Lines_ by Robert Blumetti I also went to some bookstores last week and got the following: _The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000_ by Niall Ferguson _Catastrophe: Risk And Response_ by Richard A. Posner _The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History_ by Robert Conquest _History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History_ by Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward _Prisoner’s Dilemma_ by William Poundstone _The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency_ by Philip Melenson and Peter Stevens _Seduced by Hitler: The Choices of a Nation and the Ethics of Survival_ by Adam LeBor and Roger Boyes _The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems_ by John Vacca (ed) And I bought some used books as well ---
**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:** [April 29, 2005, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644/20 "2005-04-29T12:07:20Z")
> [@Hugh Jass](#): > > I’m reading Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything” It’s a science/history book. It mixes sections on how various scientific disciplines came into being with a general history of that subject. Bryson is an excellent writer. He’s written mostly travel narratives in the past (that I’m aware of) and they are quite funny and informative. His humor is evident here too, and doesn’t crowd out the science. He makes the science relatively easy to understand. He uses the “If you stacked dollar bills from here to the moon, it would be worth $800 trillion dollars before you left the earth’s atmosphere” kind of description a lot, which I like. I’m reading this too, and it’s a terrific book, but it’s so full of amazing stuff that I get kind of shell-shocked and have to lay it aside for a while and let my little brain process stuff before picking it up again. I’m planning to take it with me on a trip next week. Also to take on the trip: Parasite rex : inside the bizarre world of nature’s most dangerous creatures, by Carl Zimmer. Sounds like a good thing to read while spending a week in a hotel sleeping on strange sheets, right! I’m in the middle of Influence : science and practice, by Robert Cialdini and Through the looking glass : further adventures & misadventures in the realm of children’s literature by Selma G. Lanes. Actually I shouldn’t even be reading this thread. I’m drowning in stuff to read and can’t find time to read it! I currently have about 25 books out of the library, with about 20 more on hold, and still I want more… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/301644.md?page=2)