# Whatcha readin' gang? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554 "2006-06-06T00:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/21 "2006-06-06T04:11:30Z")
_The Way of All Flesh_ by Samuel Butler, as part of my continuing mission to read [the 100 best novels of the 20th century.](http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html) I’ve finished 25 of them so far. It’s a long way away, but I recently found out what _A Dance to the Music of Time_ is, and I don’t have much hope in reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/22 "2006-06-06T04:30:56Z")
[Xenocide](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812509250/sr=8-1/qid=1149567770/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6635742-0821740?%5Fencoding=UTF8) - Orson Scott Card [Morals and Dogma](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CDT4T8/qid=1149567834/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6635742-0821740?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) - Albert Pike Just finished [Enders Game](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812550706/qid=1149568115/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6635742-0821740?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) and [Speaker for the Dead](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812550757/qid=1149568115/sr=2-3/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_3/102-6635742-0821740?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) and [Neuromancer](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441569595/qid=1149567923/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6635742-0821740?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) for the 100th time ---
**Author:** ![TheOnlySaneOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@TheOnlySaneOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOnlySaneOne)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/23 "2006-06-06T04:36:13Z")
Currently in the middle of reading _United States of Europe_, _Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations_, _China, Inc._, and _Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation_. …Just a bit of an interest in international affairs and history. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/24 "2006-06-06T04:37:25Z")
OK, here’s what I’ve been reading this week. _Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke_ by Peter Guralnick _The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents_ by Joyce Milton The Satires of Persius, translated by John Dryden Livy, History, Book VI _The Malcontent_ by John Marston ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/25 "2006-06-06T06:52:00Z")
I’m currently reading [and it is absolutely fantastic. I’m in the last part, and I’m so anxious about what happens to one character that I had to peep in the last chapter to see if the character is in it. (I had a bad feeling and had to console myself.) I just finished [url=[Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440212561/qid=1149574683/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-8917181-3852845?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)]Outlander](][Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582344167/sr=8-2/qid=1149573923/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-8917181-3852845?%5Fencoding=UTF8Jonathan) Strange & Mr. Norrell[/url) by Diana Gabaldon. I have to admit that I came to this with not-too-high expectations and it was much better than I was anticipating. I have some questions about some choices the author made because it just seems so over-the-top and unexpected (well, not unexpected but what I’d consider an odd choice.) That and I’m not sure that 18th-century Scots had hay bales, and there are a lot of hay bales in this book. Next up on my list (hastily rearranged because of _Outlander_) is the next book in the series, [A Dragonfly in Amber](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440215625/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-8917181-3852845?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155). After that, it’s [Letters: A Novel](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564780619/qid=1149575615/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-8917181-3852845?s=books&v=glance&n=283155), which **Reality Chuck** recommended in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=366562) (if I can find it in the library). And then I’m starting on the basic reading list for the [grad school program](http://www.english.wisc.edu/graduate/literature/readinglists.html) I want to attend–it has 70 author/poet entries and many have multiple works listed. Some I have read before, but many I haven’t. Next summer, I’m going to start on whatever areas I decide to focus on. I think that ought to keep me busy for a while. Here’s hoping the reading list doesn’t change substantially in the next few years. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/26 "2006-06-06T07:26:00Z")
[QUOTE=Jet Jaguar] I’m also reading [Under the Black Flag](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081297722X/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_2_txt/102-5718889-6932925?%5Fencoding=UTF8) by David Cordingly, probably one of the best books on the history of pirates. [/QUOTE] That sounds really neat. I just got done reading the **[Malleus Maleficarum](http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/)**. Dull in some spots, frightening in others, inadvertantly hilarious on occassion. I’m currently reading, “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomena” by Daniel C. Dennett. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/27 "2006-06-06T08:54:59Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] _The Way of All Flesh_ by Samuel Butler, as part of my continuing mission to read [the 100 best novels of the 20th century.](http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html) I’ve finished 25 of them so far. It’s a long way away, but I recently found out what _A Dance to the Music of Time_ is, and I don’t have much hope in reading it. [/QUOTE] Wow, what an anglocentric list. With the exception of ever present Nabokov (but well, he does deserve appreciation, the language is fantastic) that’s a very British and American dominated list for the claim of 100 best books ever. I’m doing something similar though. I have Ulysses, Pride and prejudice, The great Gatsby and several other hits waiting to be read simply because I feel that they should be in my knowledge. But I enjoy variation and alternate my classics with journalistic litterature and prose and modern material. Soon starting on “Three men in a boat” by Jerome K Jerome. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/28 "2006-06-06T08:57:54Z")
Sorry, I missed the specification on the list. But the point withstands. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/29 "2006-06-06T09:05:23Z")
C.S. Lewis’s “English Literature in the 16th Century (excluding drama)” (snappiest title ever) and Boswell’s “Life of Johnson, Vol 2”. Only problem is I sound like Robbie Coltrane in Blackadder III, answering even the simplest domestic question with a roared “No, madam” followed by an incredibly long-winded periphastical discombobulation. And by that time the wife’s got someone else to pass the salt. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/30 "2006-06-06T13:33:42Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] In the middle of reading Dante’s Inferno. It’s hard to find time during the day to get into it, so I’ve been reading at least one canto before bed. Makes for weird dreams. Also reading Name of the Rose - a book I’ve put off reading for at least two years. [/QUOTE] No kidding! I read this about ten years ago, and it gave me weird dreams, too. I had a dream I was just outside of Pittsburgh when an atomic explosion happened there, and I got caught in it. Not sure exactly what that has to do with the _Inferno_, though. Anyway, it’s a great book. Poem. Epic. Whatever. I found it slow going, but it was worth it. It was probably slow because I like to take my time with poetry, and I had to keep flipping to the footnotes to keep up with what was going on. Of course I read it in translation, having no proficiency in Italian, whether modern or the fourteenth-century kind. My translation was by John Ciardi, and I liked it a lot. I went on to the _Purgatorio_, but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I started it twice, and made it halfway through both times. Maybe three’s a charm… Hell’s Vestibule still creeps me out. And the Wood of the Suicides. And I have a very vivid image in my mind of King Nimrod… ah, you probably haven’t gotten to him yet. It’s not like he’s any more major than anyone else in Hell, but there’s something about his image that struck me. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/31 "2006-06-06T13:54:43Z")
I hate you all. You people and your interesting books. I’ve vowed that I will finish Robert Jordan’s latest crap pile if it kills me. So far, I’ve been averaging…40 pages a month, with about 320 pages to go. I’ve actually found myself staring at the wall for an hour at a time instead of reading it. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and knock the first book out of my hands before I got started. But noooo…I have to have… **closure**. Aaaarrrggghhh. Current strategy, once I get motivated to have another go, is to read the Wikipedia summary and only fully read the plot lines that look something less than deadly boring. Skim random paragraphs from the other chapters, just enough to say that I “read” the book. I wish the summary actually listed chapter and page numbers for the interesting bits. If I have to sit through another 40 page description of dresses and how shallow and misguided the \<\\> species is…yech… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/32 "2006-06-06T14:06:14Z")
I just recently finished reading the trilogy of Johann Wyss’ **Swiss Family Robinson** and the two-part sequrl Jules Verne wrote to it, **Their Island Home** and **The Castaways of the flag**. I followed this with Clive Cussler’s **Sahara**. I had to se if it was as over-the-top as the movie. It was, but in a different way. A surprisingly quick read. I read Dan Simmons’ **Song of Kali** , his first novel, I think. I haven’t seen it in any bookstores – my copy’s a used British edition. Very well done. Ever since a friend gave me Christopher Moore’s “The Stupidest Angel” for Christmas, Pepper Mill and I have been catching up on his earlier stuff, which we hadn’t read. There’s a guaranteed quotable off-the-wall sentence on every other page. I’ve got **The Island of the Sequined Love Nun** and **Blood-Sucking Fiends** both going now. For the near future I’ve got **The Return of Martin Guerre** (which I gave my mom for Christmas a couple of years ago, and she’s loaned back. The book. Not the movie) and Herbert Hoover’s translation of Agricola’s **De Re Metallica**. No joke. ---
**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:** [June 6, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/33 "2006-06-06T14:10:58Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] John Myers Myers’ Silverlock. Was recommended this here and I have to confess that I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the person who recommended it. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. [/QUOTE] Aw shucks! That was me. Sorry it didn’t work out for you, **Khadaji**. I recently finished The Ideal, Genuine Man by Don Robertson, recommended by **Auntie Pam**. It was a decent read and I enjoyed the way the dialect was written. It was mentioned in the books about old folks thread as well, and I imagine it’s a pretty realistic portrait of how it feels to grow old and lose…things. Like loved ones, and your mind. 🙂 Another recent read was The Klan Unmasked, by Stetson Kennedy. I read it after seeing it mentioned in Freakonomics, and it was okay, but the most interesting part was adequately covered by Freakonomics. It was kind of interesting to see how the guy got into the Klan to begin with. Just finished Don’t Try This at Home: culinary catastrophes from the world’s greatest chefs, by Kimberly Witherspoon. A light, quick read, though I found a couple of the essays made me want to smack their authors. Currently reading: What to Eat by Marion Nestle. A big thick book that explores a lot of factors involved in deciding what to buy in the grocery store, covering food-related politics, advertising, health, production methods, etc. Fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/34 "2006-06-06T15:03:28Z")
I just started Jacqueline Carey’s **Kushiel’s Scion** last night, although with my work schedule I only made it through the first chapter. It looks good, and I think I’l have a few sleepless nights in the upcoming week until I finish it. Besides that, I have had Margaret Atwood’s **Oryx and Crake** staring at me from my bedside table for the past two weeks, along with a list of books I intend to read over the summer! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/35 "2006-06-06T15:03:39Z")
I’ve been really busy with work and the house and the garden, so in my free time I’ve been reading the _Little House on the Prairie_ books again, since I hadn’t read them since childhood. They are _totally different_ if you read them as an adult. Women will, I suspect, be seeing it through the eyes of the mother, and seen that way it’s harrowing and horrible. And I could just slap Pa. Oh, yeah, sure, let’s give up here and move again with our three young children! Sounds like a blast! Of course I’m up for building another house from scratch out of the bare earth and a copse of trees! Oh, and why don’t you up and go to town again when there’s a blizzard threatening? Because that sure was fun, knowing that if you died out there the girls and I could have starved to death, what with having no way back East and all. Oh, how nice, you left the dog with us! Thanks a lot! ---
**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:** [June 6, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/36 "2006-06-06T15:37:06Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] I’ve been really busy with work and the house and the garden, so in my free time I’ve been reading the _Little House on the Prairie_ books again, since I hadn’t read them since childhood. They are _totally different_ if you read them as an adult. Women will, I suspect, be seeing it through the eyes of the mother, and seen that way it’s harrowing and horrible. And I could just slap Pa. Oh, yeah, sure, let’s give up here and move again with our three young children! Sounds like a blast! Of course I’m up for building another house from scratch out of the bare earth and a copse of trees! Oh, and why don’t you up and go to town again when there’s a blizzard threatening? Because that sure was fun, knowing that if you died out there the girls and I could have starved to death, what with having no way back East and all. Oh, how nice, you left the dog with us! Thanks a lot! [/QUOTE] Yeah, I love children’s books too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/37 "2006-06-06T15:50:47Z")
I’m working my way through Patrick O’Brian’s [Aubrey-Maturin Series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series). I’m on _The Surgeon’s Mate_ today. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/38 "2006-06-06T15:59:51Z")
Just finished **Nelson: Love and Fame** by Edgar Vincent. Fantastic! It’s a good thing Lord Nelson was real because he’d be unbelievable as a fictional character. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/39 "2006-06-06T16:06:42Z")
I’ve been on an Augusten Burroughs kick here. I just finished “Magical Thinking” and am now trying his first real novel “Sellavison”. It’s definitely fun light reading! ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554/40 "2006-06-06T16:20:49Z")
Just finished: **Getting Things Done** , by David Allen. It lives up to the hype. Working on: **Fire Watch** , a short-story collection by Connie Willis. An interesting variety of stories, yet I think it’s weird that 90% of the time her main characters are suffering from some kind of mental impairment. On deck: **This Immortal** by Roger Zelazny, the next Hugo-winning novel on the list. Looking forward to lots of cigarette-smoking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-gang/359554.md?page=3)