# Whatcha readin' (March 09) Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2009, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783 "2009-02-28T12:36:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MakeSweetPassionateSenseToMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@MakeSweetPassionateSenseToMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MakeSweetPassionateSenseToMe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/121 "2009-03-20T16:51:08Z")
Ive been working my way through Mark Danielewski’s _House of Leaves_ for the last couple of days. Very interesting, multi-layered premise, and a very complicated, confusing read… but also one of the most intriguing works I’ve picked up in some time. ---
**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 20, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/122 "2009-03-20T17:41:35Z")
Welcome to the boards, **SweetPassionateSense**! Nice username. 🙂 ---
**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 23, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/123 "2009-03-23T13:15:12Z")
Finished The Séance this weekend and I thought it was marvelous. The plot does get quite complicated, but part of my difficulty may have been that I couldn’t devote large blocks of reading time, but rather a few minutes here and there. I was glad when I ran across the illustration of the family tree; a layout of the house would also have been helpful! John Harwood’s other book (The Ghost Writer) was also a good one. I will definitely be watching for more from him. My library finally got me the third Dresden Files book, so I’m on that now and planning to go right through the rest of the series. ---
**Author:** ![MakeSweetPassionateSenseToMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@MakeSweetPassionateSenseToMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MakeSweetPassionateSenseToMe)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/124 "2009-03-23T18:16:12Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Welcome to the boards, **SweetPassionateSense**! Nice username. 🙂 Glad I can finally be a contributor, with my whopping TWO post thus far! The Username is based off of a line in a Jeffrey McDaniel poem called _The Jerk_( “I want to rip off your logic and make passionate sense to you”) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/125 "2009-03-25T00:53:43Z")
Finally finished [The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness](http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Living-Unlocking-Science-Happiness/dp/0307347311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237941395&sr=1-1) by Yongey Rinpoche Mingyur. This is a very dry read, but none-the-less I am very glad I read it. (First I will state that I do not know how to address the author. I know that Rinpoche is an honorific, but I do not know if his culture lists the surname first or last. If I mess it up, I do apologize and mean no disrespect. In any case, I will refer to him as Mr. Mingyur.) The first half of the book is devoted to the science of the brain and happiness. Mr. Mingyur does a very nice job talking about various aspects of the brain and as far as I could tell, the science was not mangled. At times he makes a comparison between what science says and what Buddhist belief says, but not in a “new age-y” sort of way and he never stretches the comparison. One point he made - which I hope I don’t relay too badly - is that the brain can be retrained. He talks about how, let us say, you might be frightened as a child and this creates a specific pathway to a specific memory. If you experience the same thing that frightened you, it reinforces the pathway, making the ability to access that fear that much more easy. The good news is, these pathways can be rewired. (OK, if the above is wrong, blame the reviewer.) In the second half of the book he switches to teaching us how to use meditation to retrain the brain. This is more about philosophy and exercises in meditation - but he still includes some science. One concept he uses that I like is _loving compassion_. It isn’t so very different than “love thy neighbor as thyself” but I like this phrase better. The concept of loving compassion is easier for me, for some reason, to embrace. He explains the often misunderstood Buddhist concept of “emptiness.” He occasionally drifts over the line between philosophy into religion, but it is a very rare thing and not worth worrying about. I suspect that I will need to reread this - likely more than once - to get the maximum benefit from it. I confess that I do not practice my meditation nearly enough. As I said, it is a dry read, but I very much recommend it. (Those of you who suffer from anxiety attacks: Mr. Mingyur says that he too suffered from them as a youth, and that meditation helped him overcome them.) ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/126 "2009-03-25T04:44:27Z")
I finished _Chaos_ and I have started \*Snow Crash \* by Neal Stephenson. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/127 "2009-03-25T13:19:51Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > I’m three-quarters of the way through _Hannah’s Dream_, by Diane Hammond and I am loving it so far. The story is about an aging elephant in a third-tier zoo and her elderly caretaker. The keeper will not retire until he finds someone as devoted to his elephant as he is. On the surface, it seems like a “cute” book, but the characters are all well-developed and I desperately want them all to end up happy at the end, even the “villainous” zoo director. Finished Hannah’s Dream and it was delightful. I know that many people, like me, are sensitive to animal cruelty even in books, so let me say that in the end The elephant lives happily ever after Now listening to the audiobook of Christopher Moore’s _Fool._ Many laugh-out-loud moments. ---
**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 25, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/128 "2009-03-25T15:14:17Z")
I stayed up late to finish _Hunters of Dune_ last night. Loved it. I also love watching people who take the Dune series too seriously get bent out of shape about it. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/129 "2009-03-25T17:03:54Z")
I’ve ground to a halt with Kay Nolte Smith’s _Tale of the Wind_, about an actress and her dwarf father figure/lover in early 19th C. Paris, after just over a hundred pages. It was a pick by my book club and it’s just meh (although one of my best friends loved it). More to my liking, I zipped through _Watchmen: Portraits_ by Clay Enos. It’s a big coffee-table book with some very good B&W photos of the main cast, extras and production staff. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/130 "2009-03-25T17:27:57Z")
I just finished \*Boys Will Be Boys \*(can’t remember the author, too lazy to look it up) about the 1990’s Dallas Cowboys…yep, those guys partied! I am now about 2/3rds of the way through \*The Hour I First Believed \*by Wally Lamb. It’s a very good book, eminently readable, but I am starting to feel like I am being moralized to by the author through the protagonist. Those of you reading \*Pillars Of The Earth \*and _World Without End_…I really liked those books, too, especially _Pillars_. What a dramatic departure in genre/style for Follet! ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/131 "2009-03-25T20:04:26Z")
I’ve gone through quite a few books these last few weeks since my last posting, but right now I’m back on the learning track. I have almost finished Gary Wills’s _Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence_, which I am really enjoying, although some of the philosophy is over my head and I don’t like the way he cites things. But as an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence, I can see why it’s unsurpassed. I’m also into _America’s Constitution: A Biography_, by Akhil Reed Amar, and like that as well. I just finished Chris Ware’s _Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth_, which is unbelievably brillant. I’m not usually using terms like this, but Ware’s effortless weaving of stories, the subdued illustrations, his paratextual gimmicks and connections, and the sheer exuberance of it, left me utterly astonished. And this comes after finishing _Watchmen_, which is arguably the finest piece of literature ever to come out as a graphic novel. I’m still looking for good books on the Articles of Confederation and the Dominican Republic myth of “fuku”, which I encountered in _The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_ and would like to learn more about… ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/132 "2009-03-26T16:19:11Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > I’m still looking for good books on the Articles of Confederation and the Dominican Republic myth of “fuku”, which I encountered in _The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_ and would like to learn more about… A google on “fuku” leads to innumerable leads on all kinds of topics. I’m curious about what you’re curious about. What is fuku? I’m kind of thinking of reading that book. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/133 "2009-03-26T17:11:18Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > A google on “fuku” leads to innumerable leads on all kinds of topics. I’m curious about what you’re curious about. What is fuku? I’m kind of thinking of reading that book. By all means, do read it! It’s very good. I’m looking for an explanation of the origins of the belief in the “fuku” (apparently, according to Diaz, a kind of curse), and if Diaz’s depiction corresponds to the folk belief in it. Probably should look for a book on Caribbean myths. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/134 "2009-03-26T18:58:47Z")
I’m reading one of the Ramona books to my daughter now. I also just picked up Watchmen (anyone hear of that? 😃 ) from Costco, so I started reading that again. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/135 "2009-03-26T19:04:35Z")
Finally getting around to “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” by Michael Chabon and enjoying it immensely. ---
**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 27, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/136 "2009-03-27T03:23:47Z")
Finished _Under the Volcano_, by Malcolm Lowry. Not quite what I was expecting, but good. A semi-autobiographical novel about the last day in the life of an alcoholic British consul to Mexico, on the Day of the Dead in 1938. (Lowry himself was never a consul.) I have a vague memory of the [1984 John Huston film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088322/) starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset, which I saw when it first came out. The book goes a bit more in depth, of course. Large parts are in a rather free-form style, not unlike James Joyce’s _Ulysses_. The man who wrote the introduction to this edition said it took three reading to get a true feeling for it. I don’t think I’m going to read it three times. Next up: _Hammerhead Ranch Motel_, by Tim Dorsey, which someone lent me. Set in Florida, at first glance it looks like something by Carl Hiaasen. Never heard of Dorsey before. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/137 "2009-03-27T10:54:19Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Next up: _Hammerhead Ranch Motel_, by Tim Dorsey, which someone lent me. Set in Florida, at first glance it looks like something by Carl Hiaasen. Never heard of Dorsey before. I love Dorsey! It’s a wild, hilarious ride. If it’s not too late, though, I would suggest picking up a copy of “Florida Roadkill” first. It’s not really a sequel, per se, but a continuing story that runs though all of Dorsey’s books. Pretty much all of the characters and situations that appear in “Hammerhead” are introduced in Roadkill. And Serge Storms is a great character. My favorite line about him (from “Roadkill”) : “Serge’s attention-deficit disorder was the first of many hyphens. Obsessive-compulsive, manic-depressive, anal-retentive, paranoid-schizophrenic. He was believed to be the only self-inflicted case of shaken-baby syndrome.” ---
**Author:** ![schnuckiputzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@schnuckiputzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schnuckiputzi)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/138 "2009-03-27T16:59:01Z")
AAUUGGHHH! I just finished _The Ghost Writer_, by John Harwood. Great Googlymooglies, that man has a twisty brain. It took me half the book to keep all the characters straight, and when the end (if you can call it such) came, I literally turned over half a dozen blank pages, looking for an epilogue…or something. I was babbling something about “Who??But…who was?? What???” Dung Beetle, please give me some hope that \*The Seance \*is less scrambled, in plot and in ending. And to reply to the question upthread, no, I probably won’t go see Watchmen. But then I rarely go to movies. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/139 "2009-03-27T17:11:18Z")
Just beginning \*The Monsters of Templeton \*by Lauren Groff, recommended by a friend. Takes place in an alt-version of Cooperstown, New York, in which monsters reside in Glimmerglass Lake as named by James Fenimore Cooper. May be a little on the fantasy side for my taste but my friend was very enthusiastic. ---
**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 27, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783/140 "2009-03-27T17:22:24Z")
> [@schnuckiputzi](#): > > Dung Beetle, please give me some hope that \*The Seance \*is less scrambled, in plot and in ending. Ah ha, so it’s not just me! It’s been some time since I read The Ghost Writer, so I don’t recall what the ending was or how I felt about it (plus I get it mixed up with The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield). But I definitely liked The Séance more, and I was enjoying the journey so I wasn’t too anxious about how the mystery turned out. I didn’t have trouble telling the characters apart, but I did get a little muddled at times as to how they were related. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-march-09-edition/487783.md?page=8)