# Whatcha Readin' (May 09) Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077 "2009-05-02T10:59:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/181 "2009-05-28T21:26:44Z")
In the past two weeks, I’ve read _The Wizard of Oz_, _Alice in Wonderland_, _Call of the Wild_, and _Robinson Crusoe_ and have started _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_…all on my iPhone. Yay for technology!!! ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/182 "2009-05-28T21:31:52Z")
> [@Musky\_Moon](#): > > In the past two weeks, I’ve read _The Wizard of Oz_, _Alice in Wonderland_, _Call of the Wild_, and _Robinson Crusoe_ and have started _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_…all on my iPhone. Hahaha, I was going to ask if you had a Kindle, 'cause that sounds like a rundown of the kind of stuff you can pick up for free. (I’m in the middle of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes myself, after having finished some Wodehouse I also got for free.) ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/183 "2009-05-28T21:40:09Z")
There’s supposed to be a Kindle app for the iPhone that allows you to buy the titles from Amazon, I’m going to look into it. I find it so handy to have a book on my phone, since I always have it on me. It beats carrying around a huge hardback. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/184 "2009-05-28T21:46:28Z")
Got lured into a bookstore by a frie^H^Henabler last Friday, and bought the following: - Piratical fiction anthology including: Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, Sarah Monette, etc. Some really nice stories in there. - The Night Train to Rigel. SF detective noir by Timothy Zahn. I liked his “Icarus Hunt”, so I picked this one up. It’s a fun read, but I admit I liked the first one a bit more. - Iron Angel, by Alan Campbell. Only halfway through it. Good stuff. - The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi. Only halfway through it. Good stuff. Still poking along in ‘Academ’s Fury’ by Jim Butcher. For some reason I just am unable to get really stuck into it, unlike the Campbell and Scalzi books and unlike the first one. I suspect it might be because this one has – what, three plots going at once, and only one really has people I care about in it. ---
**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:** [May 28, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/185 "2009-05-28T22:13:59Z")
D’oh! For the first time ever, I ‘read’ an abridged audiobook and didn’t know it until the credits at the end when the narrator mentioned who did the abridgment. If it says ‘Abridged’ anywhere on the CD box, it’s obscured by library stickers. :mad: The book was _Dreamers of the Day_, by Mary Doria Russell and, dammit, now I don’t know if I should be grateful to have been spared the rest of what was a fairly dull book or annoyed because it might’ve been improved by what was left out. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/186 "2009-05-28T22:14:17Z")
> [@lizardling](#): > > \ > Still poking along in ‘Academ’s Fury’ by Jim Butcher. For some reason I just am unable to get really stuck into it, unlike the Campbell and Scalzi books and unlike the first one. I suspect it might be because this one has – what, three plots going at once, and only one really has people I care about in it. For me it was the first one that was slow. I enjoyed all of the others and can’t wait for the next. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/187 "2009-05-29T03:48:31Z")
Been bouncing back and forth between the fiction and the non. And around the centuries. I got lucky getting to a yard sale late enough that they were doing “$5 per bag” so I stuffed mine with books. So: _The Last Enchantment_, by Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart seems like a guilty pleasure to me, like romance novels, but this one is different. Arthur’s court, from Merlin’s perspective. Fun to read. _Mary Todd Lincoln_, by Jean H. Baker. For some reason I’ve always wanted to know more about her. The book seemed to give away its author’s “women’s” perspective, but I still enjoyed it. There was a lot more to her than the crazy shrew I’ve heard about. _Katherine_, by Anya Seton. I almost missed this one at the sale and was thrilled when I found it. It’s one of the first historical fictions books I ever read and it started me through every book of hers that was in the high school library. It also fed my interest in the time period. It isn’t quite as exciting as the first time, but I’m not fifteen anymore, either. Still a good read, though. _Eleanor of Aquitaine_, by Desmond Seward. Another of my history fascinations that I finally got around to learning about. And I’m about to finish _The Virgin’s Lover_, by Phillippa Gregory. I also picked up The Other Boleyn Girl, but I’m not sure I’ll read it after I get it back from my daughter. I’m not that thrilled by Ms Gregory. I guess the next one is due to be non-fiction again, so probably the memoirs of U.S. Grant. Geesh, looking at this, it’s not wonder I’ve finished two knitting projects in the last few weeks. I’ve spent a lot of time with my head in a book and needles in my hands. ---
**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:** [May 29, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/188 "2009-05-29T05:13:35Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#): > > Geesh, looking at this, it’s not wonder I’ve finished two knitting projects in the last few weeks. I’ve spent a lot of time with my head in a book and needles in my hands. Holy crap! You do both at the same time?! You take multitasking seriously! I need all three of my hands just to hold a hardback, and they still get sore at that. I’d even have trouble keeping track of a knitting pattern while \*listening \*to a book! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/189 "2009-05-29T10:47:19Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#): > > \ > So: > _The Last Enchantment_, by Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart seems like a guilty pleasure to me, like romance novels, but this one is different. Arthur’s court, from Merlin’s perspective. Fun to read. > \ Have you read the first three? IMO, _The Last Enchantment_ was the weakest of the 4. I really enjoyed her original trilogy though, and count it as one of the better Arthur treatments. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/190 "2009-05-29T14:40:33Z")
> [@Musky\_Moon](#): > > There’s supposed to be a Kindle app for the iPhone that allows you to buy the titles from Amazon, I’m going to look into it. [Bada-bing.](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kin2w_ddp?docId=1000301301) > [@koeeoaddi](#): > > The book was _Dreamers of the Day_, by Mary Doria Russell and, dammit, now I don’t know if I should be grateful to have been spared the rest of what was a fairly dull book or annoyed because it might’ve been improved by what was left out. I didn’t know she had a new one out. Shame if it sucks, since I greatly enjoyed her other novels. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/191 "2009-05-29T15:24:09Z")
Back to _Drood_. Put it down for a few days while on a short trip out of town; had to read some other stuff and also picked up \*Bleeding Kansas \*by Sara Paretsky, the first book I’ve read by her (no, I’ve never read any V I Warshawski, but I liked it enough that I might). I think I would like her standalone books – \*Total Recall \*and \*Hard Time \*sound great. Also going to wait-list Michael Connelly’s new \*The Scarecrow \*at the library. ETA: I liked _Dreamers of the Day_! ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/192 "2009-05-29T16:16:44Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Back to _Drood_. Put it down for a few days while on a short trip out of town…\*! A kind member at paperbackswap.com is sending me _Drood_ next week… but after hearing about it in these threads for months, I’m worried I’m not going to like it. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/193 "2009-05-29T16:38:32Z")
Oh, I like it. I’m just busy and haven’t gotten far. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/194 "2009-05-29T16:57:43Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > A kind member at paperbackswap.com is sending me _Drood_ next week… but after hearing about it in these threads for months, I’m worried I’m not going to like it. I was worried too but I loved it. It’s taking awhile, but I’m trying a new approach to books – no expectations. I’m especially trying to resist reading blurbs – they’re just advertising, and they’re usually deceptive. It’s hard though. We have to know **something** about a book before picking it up, and blurbs and reviews are all we’ve got. I went back to _Silver Pigs_ by Lindsey Davis and I’m liking it, for what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/195 "2009-05-29T17:24:11Z")
May’s almost done, but I have a couple new things I’m in the process of reading, and some that I’ve just finished. I just finished: Tom Wolfe’s _I am Charlotte Simmons_, which is typically Wolfe, in a good way. Great characters, a very intruiging puzzle, and the odd sense that it could easily have been three hundred pages shorter story wise, but didn’t feel all that wordy all the same. I recommend it – in fact, I bought it twice, losing my first copy around 350 pages in and really wanting to know how it goes on. By contrast, I also lost my copy of Rushdie’s _The Satanic Verses_ and haven’t felt the need to get it again… David Flint’s _Zombie Holocaust: How the Living Dead Devoured Pop Culture_. Non-fiction zombie-film, literature and game-reviewing and listing essay. Rather interesting, in that I don’t have a zombie film book yet and was able to use this book’s short summaries to find out what was watchable; and rather opinionated, but in a good way. Probably not a must buy. I’m reading: Brock Clarke’s _An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England_, which is so-so. Eighteen year-old accidentally burns down Emily Dickinson’s Homestead, killing two people, and goes to jail for a year; when he gets back out, writers’ homes start burning down all over the place, leading him to investigate. Sometimes really funny, and then moving again in a good way, but a lot will depend on whether Clarke can make me care for the overall arc of the story again. It’s had a lot of great set-pieces, and the premise is hilarious (especially if you detest writers with New England homes), but it almost lost me around page 100 and is struggling to get me back in. John Joseph Abrams anthology _The Living Dead_. A brillant anthology of all kinds of different zombie stories, of which I especially recommend one modelled after Thornton Wilder’s play _Our Town_. Otherwise, lots of boring books about theory, and Maturana / Varela’s _Tree of Knowledge_, which I have a question on that you can find in GQ :). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/196 "2009-05-29T22:37:49Z")
Finished _The Success System That Never Fails_ by W. Clement Stone. Usually I have at least 3 books going. 1 is a geek book and I rarely report on them. I mean C# or .Net or whatever I’m working on at the time. The other is usually in a “self help” category. This is a catch-all umbrella term I use for most of the non-fiction that I read. It can be business related, or like last month more philosophy or whatever. I usually plan to take away about 10% good stuff from it. The rest either I know or I think is drivel. Anyway, I would say I got at least 10% goodness from this. IMO it is more geared towards sales and therefore wasn’t perfect for me, but there were things worth reading. Mr. Stone was a very religious man and this fact slips into his writing often enough to be noticed, but not so often that a non-religious person need worry about it. (Unless you just can’t tolerate any mention of God, then totally skip this.) I won’t say it changed my life, I won’t say it even is a “never fail” system, but I will say it has some good points and may be worth a read. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/197 "2009-05-31T04:11:28Z")
I finished _The Toilers of the Sea_ by Victor Hugo, a book I had never even heard of before three weeks ago (even though, apparently, it’s Hugo’s most famous book after _Hunchback_ and _Les Mis_. I was REALLY impressed-- terrific story and some great moments. Gilliat was a brilliant character, and it also made me want to learn more about the Channel Islands. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/198 "2009-05-31T11:26:10Z")
[June’s New Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=519495) ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/199 "2009-05-31T19:12:31Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > Just finished Romeo and Juliet and I’m now reading a copy of Hamlet that I’ve had sitting in my room for a few years collecting dust. So I just finished reading Hamlet and I now picked up For Whom the Bell Tolls, which has sat in my room since I was in high school! Weird book, I loved Hemingway back then but was never able to get through the first chapter of this book. I’m already passed that point now though. ---
**Author:** ![alloftheworld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@alloftheworld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alloftheworld)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/200 "2010-05-05T22:30:30Z")
> [@Seldon](#): > > I just finished _Omon Ra_, by Victor Pelevin. This was a really good satire of the Soviet Cosmonaut program. The only problem with the book, though, is it has many Russian/post-Soviet references that I didn’t get. If anyone else has read this book, what is the meaning of them removing the lower legs of the pilots? This seemed to be an important part of the story, but without knowing the reason, it’s rather lost on me. This is a really old post but I’ll respond anyway. I think the leg amputations thing was a reference to a really, really popular soviet book called “Story of a True Man” or “Tale of a Real Man”. It’s a novel based off a true-life a Russian fighter pilot named Alexey Maresyev. It’s basically about an amazing pilot who crashes or something and loses both of his legs. He drags himself to safety and instead of moaning about his loss, he trains extra hard with his new prosthetic legs and returns to fighting. I haven’t read it, but of course the novel version is very dramatized and served to help rouse national pride and all that. Here is the url to the author of “story of a real man”'s wikipedia page. There’s a bit more info there. [Boris Polevoy - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Polevoy) Basically, it kind of just continues with the themes of soviet citizens needing to make stupid, needless, meaningless sacrifices if they want to become “real men”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077.md?page=11)