# 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:** 5
**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 15, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/81 "2008-03-15T16:23:23Z")
Finished _The Case of the Lonely Heiress_, by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was a fun read. I’d read some Gardner years ago. He was a decent mystery writer, but his titles were embarrasingly bad. Personally, I think Perry Mason was screwing Della Street. We hit the library today, and I’m about to begin _Nature Girl_, by Carl Hiaasen, but probably not until Monday, because I have a full day tomorrow. Oh, and I’m pleased to report that I bought the \*Maus \* series today, by Art Spiegelman. I have been wanting to read it for years, but just never got around to it. Got it now. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/82 "2008-03-15T17:08:37Z")
Reading two: **Blood Meridian** , by Cormac McCarthy and **Sunset Limited** , by James Lee Burke ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/83 "2008-03-15T17:22:48Z")
John Dunning’s mystery novels starring ex-cop/bookdealer Cliff Janeway. I just finished the second, _The Bookman’s Wake_. ---
**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 15, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/84 "2008-03-15T21:34:30Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Finished _The Case of the Lonely Heiress_, by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was a fun read. I’d read some Gardner years ago. He was a decent mystery writer, but his titles were embarrasingly bad. Personally, I think Perry Mason was screwing Della Street. [/QUOTE] Didn’t Perry and Della end up getting married in the television series? All those old detective/lawyers on the radio and TV were screwing their secretaries anyway. I present Sam Spade and Effie Perine as evidence. I’m celebrating the Ides of March with a reread of Karen Essex’s _Kleopatra_ today. I went to Messrs. Barnes et Nobél yesterday to get a Spanish-English dictionary and walked out with the dictionary and volume one of _League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_. That’s not counting the books I got at the used bookstore. Mount ToBeRead: the only mountain erosion doesn’t touch. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/85 "2008-03-15T23:52:30Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] Reading two: **Blood Meridian** , by Cormac McCarthy and **Sunset Limited** , by James Lee Burke [/QUOTE] I picked up **The Road** by Cormac McCarthy today, and I’m a little worried I’m going to be as tramatized by it as the only other book I’ve read by him: [Outer Dark](http://www.amazon.com/Outer-Dark-Cormac-Mccarthy/dp/0679728732/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205624951&sr=8-2). The end of that one just about tore my heart out. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/86 "2008-03-16T01:03:16Z")
[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] If you even halfway like the Good Guy, do yourself a favor and check out: Lightning, Watchers or Strangers. I also really enjoyed Phantoms, Twilight Eyes and the Servants of Twilight 🙂 ---
**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 16, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/87 "2008-03-16T02:23:36Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat] Didn’t Perry and Della end up getting married in the television series? All those old detective/lawyers on the radio and TV were screwing their secretaries anyway. I present Sam Spade and Effie Perine as evidence. [/QUOTE] Possibly a front to hide his relationship with that detective, Paul Drake? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/88 "2008-03-16T12:02:43Z")
Finished Black Magic Woman last night. I enjoyed it and will put it in the same genre as Jim Butcher’s Dresden files. I didn’t quite like it as much as Butcher’s stuff and can’t decide why. I waited until this morning to post so that I could try and give a better review, but I am still not sure. I will read the next one in the series. Just started Kitty and the Silver Bullet. Again, I am probably not in Ms. Vaugn’s target audience, and a review of the books I’ve read last year shows that I coudl say that about 30% them. So I guess I don’t care. Also again, it is a quick, easy read and I’m comfortable with the main characters. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/89 "2008-03-16T18:05:52Z")
Just finished **The Ice Limit** and **Dance of Death** by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child I’ve now had my fll of those two for a few years. **Not Out of Africa** by Mary Lefkowitz Wanted to read that for a while In the process of Reading **Mindwarp** by Eric Frank Russell **Hermes the Thief** by Norman O. Smith ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/90 "2008-03-16T18:09:55Z")
I am trying, for the fourth or fifth time, to read all the way through **The Fountainhead**. I seem to get to just about the same spot about 2/3 of the way through every time, before I ‘lose interest’. Of course, I can’t remember what that spot is because it’s been probably 10 years since my last attempt, but this time I’m going to do it, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![gnagtcha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@gnagtcha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnagtcha)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/91 "2008-03-17T01:33:42Z")
Just recently finished the Bourne series ( heard the movies are nothing like them, so, I won’t be seeing them ) and Earth’s Childrens series ( where the heck is the last installment ), finished Duma Key the other day and jumped into another Ludlum book The Aquitaine Progression. I think I need a dose of sci-fi after this one. Maybe Cherryh ( The Pride of Chanur ) or John Varley ( Titan ). Some books I just have to re-read every couple of years ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/92 "2008-03-17T12:03:33Z")
Started _The Face of Death_ by Cody Mcfadyen. I used to enjoy these catch-a-serial-killer novels more in my youth. But the older I get, the less I enjoy them; often finding the imagery much more disturbing. I dunno if I have grown more empathetic or perhaps age has made me more aware of my own mortality. However, I buy one for a friend every year for Christmas and so I try to find one that is well written. I thought the first one _Shadow Man_ was pretty well done, even if I did guess the surprise ending. Some of the imagery was more dark (and as mentioned) I found it rather disturbing. So far I think this one is well written and I’m finding it more compelling than I expected (it has been in the queue for months.) ---
**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 17, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/93 "2008-03-17T12:58:11Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat] Mount ToBeRead: the only mountain erosion doesn’t touch. [/QUOTE] I wish! This is the second week in a row I haven’t gotten anything new at the library, and nothing is really calling to be re-read. Actually, I do have one library book left, a book called The Church of 80% Sincerity. I have no idea why I picked it up. It looks to be some sort of motivational book, and I’m not feeling really…ready…to be motivated. Besides, it’ll probably only take me about half an hour to read, so I’ll need to wait until I get desperate. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/94 "2008-03-17T15:27:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I loved loved loved The Professor and the Madman. I didn’t, I’m sorry to say. I felt it was repetitious and too long, and that it should have been cut by about 30-40% to make a scholarly article. I said the same thing about The _Devil in the White City_, and my feeling is even more strong with this one: It should have been a feature article in something like Smithsonian. It was padded into a book. I just read \*Dreamers of the Day \* by Mary Doria Russell. Very good. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/95 "2008-03-17T15:38:18Z")
[QUOTE=Sigmagirl] I didn’t, I’m sorry to say. I felt it was repetitious and too long, and that it should have been cut by about 30-40% to make a scholarly article. I said the same thing about The _Devil in the White City_, and my feeling is even more strong with this one: It should have been a feature article in something like Smithsonian. It was padded into a book. [/QUOTE] Thank you. I thought I was the only person who didn’t like “Prof and Wacko” – though I have run into a few others who didn’t care for “Devil.” Both were, as you say, lacked sufficient raw material to make them bookworthy. (I’d also throw “The Orchid Thief” into this category.) ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/96 "2008-03-17T19:08:13Z")
You all make me wish I had more time to read for fun! Sadly, my reading is almost entirely limited to dissertation-related things. For example, I am currently reading Pamela Stone’s _Opting Out_, with Sylvia Hewlett’s _Off-Ramps and On-Ramps_ up next. Oh, and a vast pile of journal articles that will be read one of these days… ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/97 "2008-03-17T19:43:29Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > A quick Google turns up nothing with this title. What, [this title](http://www.amazon.com/Science-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0091886570/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205782045&sr=1-1) or [this title](http://www.amazon.com/Miserables-Penguin-Classics-Victor-Hugo/dp/0140444300/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205782198&sr=1-2)? > [@wonderlust](#): > > Wow, I can’t imagine what it would be like, living with Discworld in your head for a year. I’m curious, did you read anything else during that time, or was it completely Pratchett-intensive? I read some non-fiction, but for fiction it was straight Pratchett. It was almost a compulsion. It isn’t like I thought it was the greatest stuff I’d ever read or anything, although I do rate _Hogfather_ very high on my all-time list. But I was in the mood for something light, and I really enjoyed them (with a few exceptions, most notably _Feet of Clay_ and _Monstrous Regiment_, which I thought just sucked). And I don’t think that either Tiffany Aching or (especially) Sam Vimes have as much in the way of legs as Pratchett obviously does. I might add that it’s something of a shock to go from books that move along rapidly to _Les Miserables_: “We interrupt this ripping yarn for a 50-page digression on the Battle of Waterloo.” Edited for punctuation. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/98 "2008-03-17T19:57:51Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Thank you. I thought I was the only person who didn’t like “Prof and Wacko” – though I have run into a few others who didn’t care for “Devil.” Both were, as you say, lacked sufficient raw material to make them bookworthy. (I’d also throw “The Orchid Thief” into this category.) [/QUOTE] Count me in. It was okay, but I thought it also was two books edited oddly into one. When I was reading it, I thought the architecture chapters were the spinach I had to eat to get to the more interesting (and salacious) dessert. Now the White City planning chapters are all I remember. The whacko is entirely forgettable. I’m reading _The Animal Dialogs_, by Craig Childs, which is wonderfully written. I’m also please to find someone who, when encountering creatures outside the usual doggies and kittehs, is even nuttier than I am. ---
**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 17, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/99 "2008-03-17T20:14:52Z")
[QUOTE=kelly5078] I might add that it’s something of a shock to go from books that move along rapidly to _Les Miserables_: “We interrupt this ripping yarn for a 50-page digression on the Battle of Waterloo.” [/QUOTE] Oh, yes…I read _Les Miserables_ ONCE…that’s all I could stand. 50 page digressions on the Battle of Waterloo, 10 page digressions on the history of the Bishop of \_\_\_\_, who appears as an actual character for about 3 pages, 5 page digression on the minutiae of the manufacture of jet jewelry in 19th Century France…Victor Hugo couldn’t give you straight-line directions to the other end of the block… ---
**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 19, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631/100 "2008-03-19T15:14:02Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] Actually, I do have one library book left, a book called The Church of 80% Sincerity. I have no idea why I picked it up. It looks to be some sort of motivational book, and I’m not feeling really…ready…to be motivated. Besides, it’ll probably only take me about half an hour to read, so I’ll need to wait until I get desperate. [/QUOTE] Augggh, I got desperate. The author has a deformed face, and he wrote about some of his life experiences. At the end of the book, I still wasn’t sure if there was a point, or what I was supposed to take away. I didn’t really care about him. There was a good line or two. At one point he says that when little kids stare at him, he’s tempted to tell them his face got like that because he touched his weenie too much. So that got a smile. Now I’m completely without fresh reading material. ☹ I keep picking up my old books, but it just doesn’t seem to be time for any of them yet. I’ve been skimming through my son’s Calvin & Hobbes books, which is all I’ve got the attention span for at the moment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-08-edition/439631.md?page=6)