# Whatcha Readin' Nov 09 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882 "2009-10-31T21:00:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/41 "2009-11-05T17:11:56Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I went back and got **In the Woods** so I can read it before \*\*The Likeness \*\*(Tara French). It’s good so far but leaves me a little creeped out as I read in bed and then try to go to sleep. :eek: I mentioned that I was reading \*\*In the Woods \*\*and my co-worker said, “I listened to that! It was hilarious.” 😕 Yep, a lighthearted romp through child murder! Turns out she was thinking of [A Walk in the Woods.](http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-America-Appalachian/dp/0307279464/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257440979&sr=1-12) ---
**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:** [November 5, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/42 "2009-11-05T17:32:55Z")
I just finished **Ann the Word** by Richard Francis, a bio of the Shaker prophet Ann Lee. Fascinating stuff about early Shaker (and American) history. She essentially founded the American Shakers in the middle of the American Revolution, and not all that far from where the British forces passed. Being British herself (along with her closest companions), they were thought to be spies when they weren’t seen as weird cultists. I still find it hard to imagine what their bunch must have been like – they had none of the characteristic features we’ve come to associate with Shakers – Ann believed the end of the world was coming soon, and so wasn’t trying to found a long-lived self-sustaining community, let alone foster “form follows function” engineering and architecture. Shaker services and dance were more spontaneous and hadn’t acquired the formalized patterns later associated with it. I’m halfway through **Devil May Care** by Sebastian Faulks, the latest writer to cover James Bond. Like the Daniel Craig movies, this is a re-boot, tossing out all the Bond novels except Fleming’s, and set in the 1960s, just after the events of **The Man with the Golden Gun**. Faulks evokes both the period (with its Cold War tensions) and Fleming’s style well. He’s clearly copying the outline from Fleming, and he makes allusions to the various books, but pushed things forward into new territory, both literally and figuratively. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/43 "2009-11-05T18:05:28Z")
I just started reading “Lamb” by Christopher Moore. I like Moore’s narrative style, and on the surface I think the premise is pretty interesting (regarding the lost gospel of Biff, Christ’s best friend), but I tend to think I might be enjoying it more if I were actually a Christian. I’m trying to read it through the same prism with which I watched Kevin Smith’s _Dogma_, but so far it isn’t working. It’s an enjoyable enough read so far though. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/44 "2009-11-05T18:20:36Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I started to hate Dr. Seuss somewhere around the 5000th reading of _Green Eggs and Ham_. I’m just now back to the point where I can think of his books without shuddering. > > I’m reading Grimm’s Fairy tales to my kids now, the ones with all of the gruesome punishments and bizarre antisocial behavior. My hatred of Thomas the Tank Engine knows no rational bounds, drummed in by continuous repetition - the toys, the books, the TV series. I even wrote a highly cathartic version of Thomas as a Nazi Death Train. Didn’t read it to the kid though. 😃 Ditto with Dora Conquistadora (a/k/a Dora the Explorer). ---
**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:** [November 5, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/45 "2009-11-05T21:16:00Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > My hatred of Thomas the Tank Engine knows no rational bounds, drummed in by continuous repetition - the toys, the books, the TV series… My wife and I still exclaim “Cinders and ashes!” and “Oh, my rods and couplings!” from time to time. And when we’re really mad about something, we threaten to call an Indignation Meeting. 😉 ---
**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:** [November 5, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/46 "2009-11-05T21:22:01Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I mentioned that I was reading \*\*In the Woods \*\*and my co-worker said, “I listened to that! It was hilarious.” > > 😕 Yep, a lighthearted romp through child murder! Turns out she was thinking of [A Walk in the Woods.](http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-America-Appalachian/dp/0307279464/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257440979&sr=1-12) I’ve posted this elsewhere on the Dope: My sister once lent her copy of _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_ to a friend who’d noticed it on her bookshelf. My sister slipped a bookmark into the book without looking too closely at it. Her friend later called her, laughing, because of what she’d earlier written on the bookmark when lending it and another book to someone else: “I think you’ll like this. The characters are little wacky, but the plot is pretty interesting.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/47 "2009-11-05T21:42:17Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My wife and I still exclaim “Cinders and ashes!” and “Oh, my rods and couplings!” from time to time. And when we’re really mad about something, we threaten to call an Indignation Meeting. 😉 😃 Extra marks if said with a Ringo Star accent. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/48 "2009-11-05T22:05:30Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve posted this elsewhere on the Dope: My sister once lent her copy of _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_ to a friend who’d noticed it on her bookshelf. My sister slipped a bookmark into the book without looking too closely at it. Her friend later called her, laughing, because of what she’d earlier written on the bookmark when lending it and another book to someone else: “I think you’ll like this. The characters are little wacky, but the plot is pretty interesting.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/49 "2009-11-05T22:12:14Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve posted this elsewhere on the Dope: My sister once lent her copy of _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_ to a friend who’d noticed it on her bookshelf. My sister slipped a bookmark into the book without looking too closely at it. Her friend later called her, laughing, because of what she’d earlier written on the bookmark when lending it and another book to someone else: “I think you’ll like this. The characters are little wacky, but the plot is pretty interesting.” 😃 That … works. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/50 "2009-11-06T01:21:46Z")
Interrupting this thread to let fans of Barbara Kingsolver know that her first novel in nine years is now out! [The Lacuna](http://www.amazon.com/Lacuna-Novel-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/0060852577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257470465&sr=8-1). ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/51 "2009-11-06T02:01:21Z")
> [@bup](#): > > [**The Elegant Universe**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elegant_Universe) by Brian Greene. Great book, though the parts where he starts talking about Calabi–Yau manifolds I had to skim pretty heavily. I can’t get my head around crazy-ass multidimensional n-folds, go figure :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/52 "2009-11-06T15:28:49Z")
Recently, I’ve finished: _Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse_, edited by John Joseph Adams. A collection of short stories about life after the end of the world. This is a good anthology with carefully selected stores… a lot of famous names (Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Jonathan Lethem) but a good smattering of new and up-and-comers. _Snow Crash,_ by Neal Stephenson. My first experience with Stephenson and for the most part, he lived up to all his hype. An action-packed plot interspersed with some pretty esoteric theories. Many parts of this book read like the most badass 1970’s kung-fu film ever… but some parts are like a bad graduate textbook. This was my “toe in the water” before thinking about maybe attempting the Baroque Cycle. _The Frog Princess_, E. D. Baker. A cute young adult story, but a little too precious for my tastes. There are better “strong female protagonist” stories out there for young girls. _The Lost Symbol_, Dan Brown. I got this from the library because I was morbidly curious, but didn’t actually want to personally give this guy any more money. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t guess how bad. And oh, the preaching! The heavy-handed moralistic blather in this book puts The Da Vinci Code to shame. Also, I think it’s pretty bombastic of Dan Brown to mention that he’s the author of one of the best selling novels of all time in his back-cover blurb. I love to be annoyed by Dan Brown. Right now, I’m halfway through _Johannes Cabal the Necromancer_ (picked up due to a SDMB recommendation!) and I’m really, really enjoying it. I KNOW I’m going to get this for someone for Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/53 "2009-11-06T15:41:30Z")
On a whim: _The Ambassadors_, by Henry James. I’m pretty sure I’ve never read anything by him before. I’m used to having to slow down my reading speed and adjust my frame of mind to read 19th-century novels, but my god, it’s like trying to read a foreign language. Actually, though, I read a couple of pages in the middle of the night (my standard “didn’t fall back to sleep right away after getting up to pee” practice), and it all actually made sense, on the first read-through. Maybe rereading the last paragraph of the previously read stuff gave me a running start? Not sure I’m going to stick with it, but I’m intrigued by the sheer baroqueness of his prose. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/54 "2009-11-06T16:42:05Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > Great book, though the parts where he starts talking about Calabi–Yau manifolds I had to skim pretty heavily. I can’t get my head around crazy-ass multidimensional n-folds, go figure :rolleyes: That’s where I am. It’s possible to pretty clearly draw a 3-d image in 2 dimensions, so I was sitting there wondering if it would be possible to create a 3-d hologram that would give people a sense of a 4th dimension. Can anyone actually envision a 4th physical dimension? If I could, that’d help a lot. Even though the book claims you need ten to make all the formulae work, just being able to ‘see’ the 4th would get my neurons firing on a _whole. nother. lev-el_. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/55 "2009-11-06T16:47:28Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > On a whim: _The Ambassadors_, by Henry James. I’m pretty sure I’ve never read anything by him before. I’m used to having to slow down my reading speed and adjust my frame of mind to read 19th-century novels, but my god, it’s like trying to read a foreign language… My book club is a pretty smart, literate bunch of cutthroats, and just read James’s novella _The Beast in the Jungle_. We all hated it, to one degree or another. The man was clearly paid by the word! I’d read _The Turn of the Screw_ in college and was underwhelmed by it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/56 "2009-11-09T00:39:29Z")
Finished _The Lightening Thief_ a YA book comparable in quality and scope (IMO) to the Harry Potter books. (Not to imply in plot.) Young Percy Jackson finds out he is the son of a Greek God in the modern-day world and must go on a quest to prevent a war between the Gods. He takes with him Annabelle (the daughter of the goddess of wisdom) and a young satyr. It was a quick enjoyable read, but rather predictable for the most part. I will read the sequels. Fans of Greek Mythology will enjoy 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:** [November 9, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/57 "2009-11-09T05:12:03Z")
My 13-year-old has been enjoying that series, too. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/58 "2009-11-09T13:01:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My 13-year-old has been enjoying that series, too. :eek: Is that a subtle insult? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/59 "2009-11-09T14:00:20Z")
Not all that subtle. :rolleyes: 😉 ---
**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:** [November 9, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/60 "2009-11-09T15:48:26Z")
Heh. No, not an insult. You refer to it as a YA book, after all. I like reading kids’ books from time to time, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882.md?page=4)