# Whatcha Readin' Jan 2011 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932 "2010-12-31T10:46:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/21 "2011-01-04T00:02:13Z")
Since I just got a Kindle, I’ve been picking up books left and right (mostly classics 'cuz they’re free, but I’ve gotten a few others as well). I just read Bill Bryson’s _At Home: A Short History of Private Life_, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I found the discussion of early hunter-gatherers and the domestication of crops to be especially interesting. I also just finished _Gulliver’s Travels_. While the ending pissed me off a little bit initially (I find his treatment of his wife appalling), I read a little bit of analysis on it, and found it fairly interesting, so now I have a bit more respect for it. I suppose I ought not to have been surprised at Gulliver’s sexism and racism anyway, considering the time period in which the book was written. I’m now reading a Straight Dope literary staple: Jared Diamond’s _Guns, Germs, and Steel_. The writing’s a bit dry, but the topic is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/22 "2011-01-04T00:19:56Z")
> [@DataZak](#): > > I’m gonna start the new year with King’s _Full Dark No Stars_. Not a mega fan but I’ve read some of his books and I think he’s best when he writes short stories or novellas. I finished it over the weekend. It was okay. Nothing to shout about but not bad. Didn’t like the first story, _1922_. Too long and I felt that the farmer did what he did just so King could write about rats and guilt and bodies dumped in wells because there was no other reason why Wilf murdered his wife. There was no indication they were in a rut (in fact, they had a healthy sex life). So she wakes up, decides to sell the farm and the husband thinks, “That’s it. Marriage has been great so far but that’s the last straw. I’m gonna kill the bitch!” The other three stories in the collection were better. I liked _A Good Marriage_. Creepiest one. How well do we know our spouses, anyway? Today, gonna crack open Paolo Bacigalupi’s _The Windup Girl_ ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/23 "2011-01-04T00:23:44Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Just finished Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians”. It was a well-written interesting take on the “Harry Potter” magician’s school, and yet it somehow sucked all the fun out of magic. I guess the main problem is that the protagonist is a whiny, drunk, useless, aimless emo bitch for most of the book. Every time his heart’s desire is granted, it’s not good enough for him (which I guess is sort of the point of the book, but man, it made reading it a drag).. I felt the same way about this book. If you pressed me, I liked it. I liked his brother’s book better though… Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. Read that one? It is to comic books what The Magicians is to kid’s fantasy novels. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/24 "2011-01-04T01:22:49Z")
I wanted to like \*The Magicians, \*I had heard great things about it, I but found it dull and none of the characters engaging. In the end, I gave it a pretty poor review. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/25 "2011-01-04T01:23:29Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Currently reading “Blackout” by Connie Willis. It’s a curious alternate history, because apparently cell phones have not been invented, or are for some reason forgotten. Half of the muddling that the characters do (in the “present”) would be resolved if they had text messaging. The best part of Blackout (as in all of CW books) is the little tidbits of fascinating historical minutia that she scatters throughout the book. She does have this giant author-crush on St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Blitz, though. There’s a tiny reference in one of her time travel books, in _Blackout_, I think: one of the historians is assigned a costume that comes with a cell phone, and the technician assures the historian that it’s a fake and perfectly safe. Insinuating, I suppose, that in the future cell phones have been abandoned because they’re dangerous. Mostly Willis just ignores their existence, as her plots (and humor) depend heavily on poor communication between her characters. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/26 "2011-01-04T01:36:08Z")
I’m reading _Sympathy For The Devil_, a compendium of short stories about…well, The Devil. Pretty good so far. The book includes classics like _Young Goodman Brown_ and many modern takes on Mr. Beelzebub. I love shit like this. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/27 "2011-01-04T03:20:51Z")
Reading ‘An April Shroud’ by Reginald Hill. This is number 4 in the Dalziel and Pascoe, although at page 175 it’s been almost all Dalziel. I love Hill’s writing. If you’ll forgive a brief hijack, I’m also reading the [Anthology Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=591295) of the most recent SDMB Short Fiction contest, and I highly recommend it to all of you. If you have any spare reading time in the next ten days, please, have a look, comment on any of the stories and vote for your favourites. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/28 "2011-01-04T03:26:41Z")
> [@Alpine](#): > > Doing another run through Discworld. It’s been a while, and I’m enjoying it a great deal. Putting off Gary Taubes’ (author of _Good Calories, Bad Calories_) [new book](http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Borzoi/dp/0307272702/ref=pd_ys_iyr5), as I may become convinced (again) to change my lifestyle and I want one last weekend of relative gluttony. Currently reading Unseen Academicals. Would be interesting to go back and read all of them again. He grew so much as a writter since the beginning. Which makes his condition even more depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/29 "2011-01-04T03:45:45Z")
I’m still working through _\Godel Escher Bach_ Should be done by February. Also reading an anthology of new space opera edited by Gardner Dozois. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/30 "2011-01-04T08:59:43Z")
I spent the holidays reading Robert Rodi’s _What They Did to Princess Paragon_, a rather fun novel set in the comics industry: a comics writer intent on furthering his reputation as cutting-edge changes a Wonder Woman stand-in into a lesbian, and hilarious events ensue with a fan. Quite nice, but I’ve had better comics-themed books in my hands. Also finished Michael Chabon’s _The Yiddish Policemen’s Union_. I’d started this one once before and didn’t get into it, but this time around, it was a joy to read. I especially liked the ways in which Chabon implied a totally changed world history since 1948, but we really don’t get to know any of it. Made it much more mysterious. Recommended. Joe Sacco’s _Footnotes in Gaza_. Excellent, though depressing. Joe Hill’s _Locke & Key_. Liked this so much that I have already ordered the next volume. I’m probably going to keep reading Justin Cronin’s _The Passage_ for the rest of the week–very enjoyable, but also somewhat scary for wusses like me… ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/31 "2011-01-04T09:07:51Z")
I’ve just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, which I thought was v. good. Not sure if it’s better than the first one, it felt more like a traditional thriller and I had more of a sense of Sweden as a place from the first book. Planning to start on the final book in the trilogy soon, but am dipping into some Jeffery Deaver short stories while I wait. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/32 "2011-01-04T12:11:54Z")
Currently reading John Dies at the End by David Wong. I’m almost halfway through, and it’s definitely holding my interest. > [@DataZak](#): > > I’m gonna start the new year with King’s _Full Dark No Stars_. Not a mega fan but I’ve read some of his books and I think he’s best when he writes short stories or novellas. I got this one for Christmas, so it’ll probably be up next. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/33 "2011-01-04T14:29:32Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > …Joe Hill’s _Locke & Key_. Liked this so much that I have already ordered the next volume… I read this late last year and liked it very much. Good stuff. I have the second volume but haven’t started it yet. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/34 "2011-01-04T14:42:12Z")
**Lady Godiva: A Literary History** by Donoghue. Great info on the Bareback Rider and her times, and how the theme has been treated since. **Heretics of Dune** – I never read the end of the Dune cycle, and am just now getting to it. **The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon** – although I know the stories of Rip Van Winkle and The Headless Horseman, I realized that I never read them, or the rest of Washington Irving’s classic. I was also curious about the Christmas sections, which inspired Dickens’ own _A Christmas Carol_. **Mark Twain’s Autobiography** Vol. I. A gift for my birthday. I read the existing autobio a couple of years ago, but Twain wanted much material sealed until a century after his death – that’s last year. The first volume alone is about twice the length of his old one. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/35 "2011-01-04T15:09:33Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > Also finished Michael Chabon’s _The Yiddish Policemen’s Union_. I’d started this one once before and didn’t get into it, but this time around, it was a joy to read. I especially liked the ways in which Chabon implied a totally changed world history since 1948, but we really don’t get to know any of it. Made it much more mysterious. Recommended. I really liked that book, and I loved Chabon’s _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/36 "2011-01-04T15:11:35Z")
I’m still reading Walter Rankin’s _[**Grimm Pictures: Fairy Tale Archetypes in Eight Horror and Suspense Films**](http://www.amazon.com/Grimm-Pictures-Archetypes-Horror-Suspense/dp/0786431741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294153585&sr=8-1)_ in paperback, and these days on my Kindle I’m reading Jim Butcher’s _[**Side Jobs**](http://www.amazon.com/Side-Jobs-Stories-Dresden-ebook/dp/B0043RSIV4/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294153607&sr=1-1)_ (as mentioned in the OP). Next up is another paperback, Maria McCann’s _[**As Meat Loves Salt**](http://www.amazon.com/Meat-Loves-Salt-Harvest-Original/dp/015601226X/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294153651&sr=1-1)_. I’m not usually into period pieces, but the reviews are excellent and it sounds…interesting. 😃 I learned about it in a friend’s journal, when he mentioned getting it for Christmas, and after looking it up I asked if I could borrow it when he was done. Turns out he’d also bought a copy for himself (not expecting to get it as a gift), so he gave me the “extra” copy when I saw him yesterday. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/37 "2011-01-04T15:20:54Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I’m reading _Sympathy For The Devil_, a compendium of short stories about…well, The Devil. Pretty good so far. The book includes classics like _Young Goodman Brown_ and many modern takes on Mr. Beelzebub. I love shit like this. Me too. I’ll have a look for it. Last night I finished\* Monsters of Men\*, the last book of the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. I really liked this series, though it made me cry, dammit! Added Mr. Ness to my list of authors to watch for. Started a new audiobook as well, _One Thousand White Women_, by Jim Fergus. It’s about a fictional agreement between President Ulysses Grant and the Cheyennes to send brides to the Indians in trade for horses. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/38 "2011-01-05T17:36:51Z")
I read _[The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age](http://www.amazon.com/Great-Silence-Britain-Shadow-First/dp/0802119441/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294248275&sr=1-1)_ by Juliet Nicholson, which I found very interesting, though she does tend to rely too heavily on accounts of the upper class to the exclusion of regular people (she is the granddaughter of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West). I do understand that this information is more readily available, but that just means she has to work harder. Still, quite good. I had previously read her _[The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm.](http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Summer-England-Before-Storm/dp/B001LNOOIY/ref=pd_cp_b_2)_ Then read _[9 Dragons](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316166316/ref=cm_rdp_product)_ by Michael Connolly. It got a lot of hate. I don’t think it’s his best, but I don’t think it was that bad. Harry Bosch’s daughter gets kidnapped and he has to go to Hong Kong to rescue her; Chinese triad gangs are involved. There’s too much of calling her “his _daughter_” for emotional effect and not enough using her name, and I don’t like being manipulated like that – actually, I can’t be manipulated like that, but the action was pretty good. I think Connolly was especially eager to kill off Bosch’s ex-wife. I don’t know why. Getting ready to start Ken Follett’s new _[Fall of Giants](http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Giants-Century-Trilogy-Follett/dp/0525951652/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294248985&sr=1-1)_. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/39 "2011-01-05T17:54:42Z")
Right now, I’m in the middle of “The Fixer” by Bernard Malamud. I had just finished “Whip Hand” by Dick Francis. ---
**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:** [January 5, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/40 "2011-01-05T18:27:30Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Started a new audiobook as well, _One Thousand White Women_, by Jim Fergus. It’s about a fictional agreement between President Ulysses Grant and the Cheyennes to send brides to the Indians in trade for horses. Or maybe not, it’s starting to get on my nerves already. ETA: Huck Finn seems like it might be a good choice. It’s been so long since I read it I don’t remember anything, and I certainly want to get to it before it gets all sanitized. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932.md?page=3)