# Whatcha readin' October edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084 "2007-09-30T23:26:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/181 "2007-10-26T17:27:04Z")
I just read the ltest several Benni Harper mystery novels. Not so good – kind of dull and they’ve already sort of run together in my mind. DOn’t think I’ll carry on with that series anymore. Next up I have a new first novel by Laura Benedict called {i]Isabella Moon\*. Supposed to be all ghosty and stuff… We’ll see. How about Chuck Palahniuk? My son has read _Fight Club_, _Diary_, & _Rant_ and is planning to read the rest of his books. He recommended them to me, even though they don’t seem like the type of thing I’d usually pick up. He suggested I start with _Rant_ because it’s his favorite. Anybody read 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:** [October 26, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/182 "2007-10-26T17:47:24Z")
[QUOTE=gardentraveler] I’ll be interested to hear how you like **Lizzie’s War** , **koeeoaddi**. I’ve read several of Tim Farrington’s books and really enjoyed them. GT [/QUOTE] **GT** , I filched _Lizzie’s War_ from your GoodReads list.🙂 I like it, so far. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/183 "2007-10-26T22:14:41Z")
An interesting passage from my current read, _New Grub Street_ by George Gissing. The speaker is Edwin Reardon, a writer with a debilitating case of writer’s block. He’s just churned out a terrible book, for money, and his wife is about to leave him. I’ve bolded the part that I thought was interesting. “Since the publication of his first book he had avoided as far as possible all knowledge of what the critics had to say about him; his nervous temperament could not bear the agitation of reading these remarks, which, however inept, define an author and his work to so many people incapable of judging for themselves. No man or woman could tell him anything in the way of praise or blame which he did not already know quite well; **commendation was pleasant, but it so often aimed amiss** , and censure was for the most part so unintelligent.” Is he saying that readers recognize the wrong parts as good? That something that he took no pains to write is getting positive attention, while something he struggled over and thinks is really good is being ignored? That readers just don’t get it? I thought it uncharitable of him to quibble about a compliment, but maybe Gissing wrote this to balance the thought. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/184 "2007-10-26T23:47:20Z")
> [@](#): > > He suggested I start with Rant because it’s his favorite. Anybody read it? I’m a fan but I sure wouldn’t start with Rant. \*Chuck \*has had a problem with mistaking gross and explicit with good writing in his last few books. He used to have reasonable plots. My fiction preferences, from most preferred to least: \*Lullaby Choke Fight Club Survivor Invisible Monsters Diary Rant \* (what I’ve read of it) Trailing way at the back of the heap, and sort of sorry I wasted the time: _Haunted._ ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/185 "2007-10-27T00:22:57Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] **GT** , I filched _Lizzie’s War_ from your GoodReads list.🙂 I like it, so far. [/QUOTE] Hee. I’ve filched a number of books from you and **AuntiePam** and **Shoshana** and several others. It’s one of the things I like most about GoodReads - it’s easy to discover books that you want to read and not completely lose track of them. I’m just barely into _Freedom and Necessity_ (thank you **Miss Purl McKnittington** ). Much different than what I usually read, but I like it a lot already. GT ---
**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:** [October 27, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/186 "2007-10-27T00:31:27Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] Finished and loved _Water for Elephants_, re-read _Sense and Sensibility_ and now I’m on a Vietnam kick. [/QUOTE] If you’re on a Vietnam kick, I highly recommend \*\*The Quiet American \*\* by Graham Greene, \*\*Ho Chi Minh \*\* by William J. Duiker and **A Bright and Shining Lie** by Neil Sheehan (who I believe just died a few months ago in an auto accident in California. A shame, because he was a top-notch reporter). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/187 "2007-10-27T00:41:50Z")
I hope you love it, **gardentraveler**! Or at least continue to like it a lot. I finished all the books I was reading previously, so long ago I can’t even remember what they were. I absolutely _love_ “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” though. It was amazingly plotted. I’ve been recommending it willy-nilly to people I think will like it. I was actually sad when it ended, because I wanted to know about (Major spoiler! Don’t highlight unless you’ve read it!) the fallout from the main character being shot by his wife’s brother and father. I think the author could have done that scene justice, but I can understand why it wasn’t included. Finished “Making Money” by T. Pratchett, too. That was really good. I cannot get enough of Moist Von Lipwig and Spike. And the golems. And Vetinari’s machinations. Right now I’m reading “We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families,” which I fully expect to be devastating. I think the day I finish it, I’m going to read about Darfur and then watch “Hotel Rwanda.” Then I might, I dunno, go on a bender or something. But first I’ll have to find a white Ford Bronco . . . I also have “Magic Study” by Maria V. Snyder checked out from the library, along with the first two Thursday Next novels, “The Eyre Affair” and “Lost in a Good Book.” Looking forward to those. And today at the thrift store, I grabbed “A Thousand Acres” by Jane Smiley, which my Shakespeare prof recommended to me two years ago. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/188 "2007-10-27T01:46:20Z")
“A History of the World in 10 1/2 chapters” by Julian Barnes which was garbage. Am currently finishing “Tragically, I was an only Twin” a collection of work by Peter Cook, who is very possibly the greatest Englishman who ever lived. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/189 "2007-10-27T05:46:43Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] If you’re on a Vietnam kick, I highly recommend \*\*The Quiet American \*\* by Graham Greene, \*\*Ho Chi Minh \*\* by William J. Duiker and **A Bright and Shining Lie** by Neil Sheehan (who I believe just died a few months ago in an auto accident in California. A shame, because he was a top-notch reporter). [/QUOTE] Thanks, **Siam Sam**. I read and really liked _A Bright and Shining Lie_, but not the other two you mention. I’ll put them on my list. I’ve been on a Vietnam kick for about 30 years, now. I can’t believe I haven’t read _The Quiet American_ yet. ---
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/190 "2007-10-27T06:53:25Z")
It’s been crazy at work the past 2 months, but I’m finally seeing signs of it easing up. Just in time to buy a copy of Ken Follet’s World Without End. I have 5 days off in the first week of November, and I know how I’m going to spend it. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/191 "2007-10-27T16:47:21Z")
Victorian literary types and their zingers! I didn’t know where else to share this and it doesn’t warrant a new thread. In _New Grub Street_ (can you tell I’m loving this book?), blocked writer Edwin and his wife Amy have separated. She and the child are living with her mother. Edwin has taken a clerk position at 25 shillings a week. He insists on sending half to Amy, even though he needs it much more than she does. In a letter to Edwin, Amy tells him that she considers this money a reminder that he’s “undergoing privations” and trying to hurt her, and that she’s depositing the money in an account for the child. Edwin’s response: “I regard it as quite natural that you should put the worst interpretation on whatever I do. As for my privations, I think very little of them; they are a trifle in comparison with the thought that I am forsaken just because my pocket is empty. And I am far indeed from thinking that you can be pained by whatever I may undergo; that would suppose some generosity in your nature.” If Edwin were writing this today, he probably would have signed off with a 😛 . ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/192 "2007-10-27T17:38:01Z")
[QUOTE=gouda] It’s been crazy at work the past 2 months, but I’m finally seeing signs of it easing up. Just in time to buy a copy of Ken Follet’s World Without End. I have 5 days off in the first week of November, and I know how I’m going to spend it. [/QUOTE] The blurb I read was completely unclear. Is this a sequel to **The Pillars Of The Earth** or is it not? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/193 "2007-10-27T18:38:44Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] A “Since the publication of his first book he had avoided as far as possible all knowledge of what the critics had to say about him; his nervous temperament could not bear the agitation of reading these remarks, which, however inept, define an author and his work to so many people incapable of judging for themselves. No man or woman could tell him anything in the way of praise or blame which he did not already know quite well; **commendation was pleasant, but it so often aimed amiss** , and censure was for the most part so unintelligent.” Is he saying that readers recognize the wrong parts as good? That something that he took no pains to write is getting positive attention, while something he struggled over and thinks is really good is being ignored? That readers just don’t get it? I thought it uncharitable of him to quibble about a compliment, but maybe Gissing wrote this to balance the thought. [/QUOTE] It sounds to me that this person thinks that the critics praise the wrong parts and that their censure was not well thought out. He may include everyone (even readers) in that, but I think it’s mainly the critics. The characters sounds a bit conceited. I have just finished An Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal. Very good–lightly humorous but salient re modern culture and people. I need to start on The Stuff of Thought, but really just want to read junk today. I can’t do either-I have grad school work to do. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/194 "2007-10-27T23:24:06Z")
Done with\* The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. \* I’m working like crazy to get out of here for a board meeting and conference so I’m really behind on my reviews and goodreads updates. I’m hoping to catch up on the plane or at lull times in the next week. I’ll probably finish _Social Lives of Medicines_ on the treadmill tomorrow, and bring _Unlikely Destinations, The Glass Castle, Water for Elephants,_ and _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ for the plane, though I may have to substitute _Multicultural Counseling Competencies: Individual and Organizational Development_ (yeah, I’m teaching with it, but I also read that stuff for fun). ---
**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:** [October 28, 2007, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/195 "2007-10-28T01:52:54Z")
[QUOTE=Malthus] Anyway, it is obviously not going to be easy to find in Thailand … something to keep in mind when the opportunity arises. For example, as a result of reading that book, I got interested is Field Marshal Slim, who also wrote an autobiography - but it was years before I read it. It was very good, too. Slim is one of the most underrated generals of WW2, and not a bad writer, at that. [/QUOTE] Oh Happy Day! My library DOES carry _Quartered Safe Out Here_ after all! For reasons that elude me, I failed to check the non-fiction area, as I was used to seeing all of his books on the Fiction shelves. Unfortunately, when I was in the library yesterday (Saturday), it was checked out to someone else. But I will definitely grab it soon. Meanwhile, I’m about to start **Bangkok Eight** , by local author John Burdett, a Brit and ex-Hong Kong lawyer. A detective noir set in Bangkok. “Bangkok noir,” as I like to term it, has become something of a popular genre among the farang (Western) community here, but many of the books are rather on the adolescent side. This one comes highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/196 "2007-10-28T02:31:19Z")
I’ll kick Bangkok 8 higher on my list if some of you are planning to read it soon. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/197 "2007-10-28T03:44:33Z")
I have it here in front of me and will start it tomorrow (Monday) morning. (Busy today.) ---
**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:** [October 28, 2007, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/198 "2007-10-28T04:01:01Z")
I loved **Bangkok 8** , as well as **Bangkok Tattoo** and **Bangkok Haunts**. Burdett is on my auto-buy list. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/199 "2007-10-28T04:08:17Z")
Hmmm. Sounds like I should not have waited so long to read him. I’m never sure which books are available in the West, but \*The Big Mango \* and _Tea Money_, both by Jake Needham, are also good Bangkok noir. \*The Big Mango \* may be being made into a Hollywood film. (“The Big Mango” is Bangkok’s unoffical nickname.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/200 "2007-10-28T05:18:15Z")
I’ve decided to stay in the late 1800’s, so I started _The Forsyte Saga_ today. I missed the PBS production, so all these people are new to me. I tried it once before but it put me to sleep. I’m enjoying it this time. Maybe because Gissing got me all acclimated (sp?). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=11)