# Whatcha readin' March (08) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631 "2008-02-29T12:28:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/61 "2008-03-10T17:38:37Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Just checked half dot com – the cheapest copy of her bio is over $80, which is about $79 more than I am curious. (Hey – you guys busy Saturday the 22nd? We’re doing a Philly Doper Dinner.) [/QUOTE] I’d have to consult with **supervenusfreak** on that. Is there a thread on it? We’ll look at our schedule. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/62 "2008-03-10T17:46:35Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] That’s _Flash for Freedom!_😃 [/QUOTE] I just finished reading that one. It’s really good, but cringe-worthy in spots. Flashy starts off as a crew member on a slave ship, then he ends up in New Orleans and gets roped into helping runaway slaves escape to the north. If you’ve read any Flashman book you can just imagine his reaction to all of it. I had to be careful not to let my kids read it over my shoulder. This weekend I’m traveling to Washington, DC with my son’s fifth grade class. It’s a 13-hour bus trip times 2, and the only thing good about that is I’ll have a lot of time to read. I have my motion sickness patches all ready to go. I’ve assembled a variety of paperbacks to take: _Half the Blood of Brooklyn_, Charlie Huston _The Quiet Gentleman_, Georgette Heyer \*Flag in Exile \*(Honor Harrington book 5), David Weber _The Time Traveler’s Wife_, Audrey Niffenegger _Me Talk Pretty One Day_, David Sedaris (never anything by him before) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/63 "2008-03-10T17:56:41Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] I’d have to consult with **supervenusfreak** on that. Is there a thread on it? We’ll look at our schedule. [/QUOTE] [ot][Yonder.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=458437)[/ot] ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/64 "2008-03-10T17:57:56Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] This weekend I’m traveling to Washington, DC with my son’s fifth grade class. It’s a 13-hour bus trip times 2… [/QUOTE] …with a busful of fifth-graders? Yeah, you’ll get a lot of reading done. 😉 ---
**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:** [March 10, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/65 "2008-03-10T18:28:27Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] …with a busful of fifth-graders? Yeah, you’ll get a lot of reading done. 😉 [/QUOTE] They’re putting the kids on one bus and the parents on another! They said that otherwise the kids will want to swap around every time the buses stop. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/66 "2008-03-10T18:51:53Z")
_Deliverance_ by Ellen Glasgow. Published in 1904 or thereabouts, it’s a vengeance story set in the south about 10 years after the Civil War. I’m enjoying it. It’s remarkably free of racial or regional stereotyping. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/67 "2008-03-10T18:54:29Z")
Working my way through\* Suite Francaise\* by Irene Nemirovsky and _Soon I Will Be Invincible_ by Austin Grossman; I finished off _Tess of the D’Urbervilles_ and _Middlemarch_ for classes (I’m so proud of me!) and now I’m treating myself to a reread of Tolkien’s _Return of the King_. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/68 "2008-03-10T18:55:20Z")
I gave up on _A Distant Mirror_. It got successively more boring after the Plague. Good to know politics were always so bloody dull. Working on _Mean Spirit_ by Linda Hogan right now. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/69 "2008-03-12T03:47:43Z")
I finished Elmore Leonard’s _Pagan Babies_. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a few days before we can get to the library, so today, to fill the gap, I’m taking up one called _The Case of the Lonely Heiress_, by Erle Stanley Gardner. A Perry Mason mystery. The wife likes those. I hope it’s not as stupid as the title makes it sound. Have to have something to read while traveling around on the buses and Skytrain here. ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/70 "2008-03-12T08:06:21Z")
I’ve just started _The Good Guy_ by Dean Koontz. I’ve never read anything by him before and so far it looks interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/71 "2008-03-12T08:23:39Z")
_Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments_ by Alex Boese. It’s my toilet reader. I read about a bizarre experiment or two and put it back down. Cool stuff. _Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion_ by Robert Cialdini. Not a whole lot to elaborate on beyond the title. It’s a bit basic, but I’m almost done, and I figure that I might as well finish it. It’s my book I read before going to bed. _Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are_ by Joseph LeDoux. All about synapses and how they get wired up and that shapes our behavior. Really, really cool stuff, but I can only read it for so long before my head starts to hurt. It’s my book I read between classes. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/72 "2008-03-12T11:25:15Z")
[QUOTE=DataZak] I’ve just started _The Good Guy_ by Dean Koontz. I’ve never read anything by him before and so far it looks interesting. [/QUOTE] I have not read The Good Guy yet, but enjoy Koontz. Some people have called him the poor man’s King, but I like him much better than King. Let us know what you think of him. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/73 "2008-03-13T02:35:25Z")
[QUOTE=ForumBot] _Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments_ by Alex Boese. It’s my toilet reader. I read about a bizarre experiment or two and put it back down. Cool stuff. [/QUOTE] Dunno about the book, but I would not want to watch that. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/74 "2008-03-13T04:48:37Z")
That’s good. I wouldn’t want you watching me poop, either. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2008, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/75 "2008-03-13T11:56:26Z")
I somehow caught up with all my reading, and it doesn’t look like I’m getting anything in at the library this week. ☹ So I’m re-reading Duma Key, which I wanted to do anyway, just not quite so soon! It’s that, or watch **ForumBot** poop. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/76 "2008-03-13T12:13:51Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] It’s that, or watch **ForumBot** poop. [/QUOTE] The one thing that the Internet has taught me in the last 12 years I’ve been using it is that there are probably people who’d pay good money for that. ---
**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:** [March 14, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/77 "2008-03-14T02:05:55Z")
Full Disclosure: I don’t want to watch ForumBot poop OR elephants on acid. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/78 "2008-03-14T03:50:15Z")
I finished re-reading the first two books in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy - **A Great and Terrible Beauty** ; **Rebel Angels** ) and read the last one, **The Sweet Far Thing** , this week. Great stories, great characters, horribly unfair though not entirely unexpected ending. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/79 "2008-03-14T04:15:03Z")
I’m reading a collection of Carson McCullers stories now…almost done, actually. I’m about 1/4 way through “The Member of the Wedding” and that’s the last story in the book. I’ve never been much into contemporary fiction (as opposed to fantasy or science fiction), but McCullers is really good…there’s this sense of dread in the back of most of her writing, like you KNOW there’s something coming and it’s not going to be pleasant. Very, very enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/80 "2008-03-14T05:02:39Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] The one thing that the Internet has taught me in the last 12 years I’ve been using it is that there are probably people who’d pay good money for that. [/QUOTE] I’m listening… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631.md?page=5)