# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/101 "2007-10-06T00:19:40Z")
[QUOTE=Phase42] I decided I’ve been reading too many _Dungeons & Dragons_ novels (there are so many of them!), so the other day I picked up a copy of _City of Golden Shadow_, the first book in Tad Williams’ _Otherworld_ series. A friend gave me _War of the Flowers_ a couple years ago and I really enjoyed it, so I figured I’d try some more TW. I just started _City of Golden Shadow_ today. [/QUOTE] I’d be curious to hear what you think of _City of Golden Shadow._ I read it once for book club and found it rather dull. Then, a few years later, I picked it up again (I think I was trapped in a vacation home with nothing to read) and ended up going on to rip through the rest of the series, I was so caught up in the story. I just finished _Special Topics in Calamity Physics_ by Marisha Pessl, which I enjoyed very much although I think I would wanted to know ahead of time that it’s intended to be a little unrealistic and over the top – I couldn’t tell at first if I was supposed to be enjoying that aspect. And also _Evidence of Things Unseen_ by Marianne Wiggins, which was also very good and not what I was expecting based on the reviews. It’s a very sweet love story set against a backdrop of scientific inquiry, leading up to the atomic age. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/102 "2007-10-06T16:50:55Z")
**twickster** , I think your genius with language and words is very well known on the Dope. It’s only natural one would think of you while reading a book that’s all word ‘trickery’ 🙂 I’d be interested in seeing what \*\*Left Hand of Dorkness \*\* thinks of this new book as well. He’s into this stuff, too. ---
**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 7, 2007, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/103 "2007-10-07T02:33:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] **War and Peace** - I just started, I’ll let you know how it goes. [/QUOTE] That’s actually a surprisingly readable book. Everyone I know who’s read it was surprised how involving it could be. Myself, I read most of it while riding around on Bangkok buses; Tolstoy would have been proud of me. I’ll bring up my question above again: Does anyone know why a great author like Cormac McCarthy would make such a bad mistake like detailing gas-chamber executions in Texas in \*\*No Country for Old Men \*\* when that state has never used the gas chamber and indeed used the electric chair at the time he was describing the executions? I cannot believe he would make such a mistake, so I figure he did this on purpose for some reason. I detected similar mistakes in James Michener’s **Hawaii** ; that author was so familiar with the place that he must have done it on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/104 "2007-10-07T05:42:58Z")
For school: Canterbury Tales by Chaucer Lady Audley’s Secret by Braddon Everyone Can Write by Elbow For me: Nothing yet. I’m trying to learn Spanish for school as well, so it may be a while before I get back to my books. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/105 "2007-10-07T12:05:07Z")
I’ve just bought a whole bunch of books…co-incidentally my husband bought an X-Box 360 elite and Halo 3. So far: I’ve re-read _American Gods_ by Neil Gaiman, and read a collection of his short stories (_Fragile Things_) and a graphic novel (_Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes_). I enjoyed all of them immensely. I’ve just finished the new Terry Pratchett (_Making Money_), which was great fun to read too. I’m now 100 pages into Donna Tartt’s _The Secret History_ and I have Jonathan Safran Foer’s _Everything Is Illuminated_ and _The Ladies of Grace Adieu: And Other Stories_ by Susanna Clarke still to go. Bookshops are bad places, what with their “3 for 2” deals and “Specials of the Month”. I always come out with more than I planned to buy. I don’t think I can really count the stuff I read for work. If you’re interested: whatever interests me from JAMA, NEJM, BMJ, BJOG and AJOG each month and I’m trying to work through _Management of Common Problems in Obstetrics and Gynecology_ by Mishell, Goodwin and Brenner. Nothing thrilling. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/106 "2007-10-07T12:56:53Z")
Finished Paul Fussell’s _The Boys’ Crusade_ and Christopher Moore’s _You Suck_ on a long bus ride. Now I’m in the middle of _Drawing of the Three_ and _The Omnivore’s Dillema_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/107 "2007-10-07T13:38:32Z")
[QUOTE=TheMerchandise] Finished Paul Fussell’s _The Boys’ Crusade_ and Christopher Moore’s _You Suck_ on a long bus ride. Now I’m in the middle of _Drawing of the Three_ and _The Omnivore’s Dillema_. [/QUOTE] A friend of mine just recommended the Omnivore’s Dilemma. I’ll be interested in hearing what you think. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/108 "2007-10-07T13:47:33Z")
[QUOTE=brendon\_small] Lady Audley’s Secret by Braddon [/QUOTE] This is one of my favorite 19th-century novels, and I’m a big fan of 19th-century novels. **Khadaji** – _Omnivore’s Dilemma_ is good – Pollan is one of my favorite writers. I regularly recommend his _Botany of Desire_, which is an interesting look at the coevolution of humans and four plants (apples, tulips, potatoes, and marijuana). ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/109 "2007-10-07T14:38:45Z")
[QUOTE=delphica] I’d be curious to hear what you think of _City of Golden Shadow._ I read it once for book club and found it rather dull. Then, a few years later, I picked it up again (I think I was trapped in a vacation home with nothing to read) and ended up going on to rip through the rest of the series, I was so caught up in the story. [/QUOTE] I recently decided to do a re-reading of the entirety of Tad Williams’ **Otherland** series and go straight through all four volumes for the first time. Currently in the middle of the second volume, **River of Blue Fire**. I’m recalling the first time I read the series there were some stretches that tended to drag, but I am finding this time almost none of it to be so; instead finding it all very engrossing. I’ve never read Williams’ fantasy novels though; any recommendations on where to start? ---
**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 7, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/110 "2007-10-07T16:21:11Z")
[QUOTE=nipplesup] the animal cruelty took some air-gulping on my part … in order to proceed with the story [/QUOTE] No kidding. It may be a wonderful book [**Water for Elephants**], but after the horse killings and elephant punishment part I read last night, I’m not sure I’m going to keep going. Is that the worst of it, or is there a lot more? ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/111 "2007-10-07T18:03:24Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] This is one of my favorite 19th-century novels, and I’m a big fan of 19th-century novels. [/QUOTE] So far I like it. I’m only about 100 pages in, but it has to be finished by next week. I just finished Jane Eyre for the same class, and I found it kind of slow. By the middle it was good, but meh, I could take it or leave it. Luckily, Lady Audley’s Secret has been a bit more interesting. Brendon ---
**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 7, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/112 "2007-10-07T18:15:10Z")
Okay, I’m done with _The Map that Changed the World_ by Winchester. I preferred his OED-related books, perhaps because I’m actually interested in the picky details of dictionary development, and because with a focus on words his Byzantine sentences don’t seem out of line. Winchester is somewhat repetitive, which helped to relate events to each other but also diminished any dramatic tension to be found in the story. While I liked _The Map that Changed the World_ well enough, it was a slow read (about 25 pages a night). I didn’t mind the intrusion of the author’s story at mid-book; I understood it as an outcropping from a different era than the surrounding narrative, if I may use a geological metaphor. Perhaps the problem was that I gained little sense of William Smith’s psychology, which made this more a book about the history of an idea and less about the progenitor of the idea. That’s fine, but a less-rich narrative. Winchester’s richness seems typically to reside in his descriptions of the historical context in which the events of his books occurred. At this he is quite masterful. I enjoy Winchester’s compulsive need to share amusing tangential or coincidental information in footnotres. He also turns one particularly fine phrase , which may help explain why there is so little of Smith’s emotional stratum in this book. Regarding Smith: : “He was no great diarist; but once in a while his entries make one wish he had been a better one” (p. 56). One may read excerpts [here.](http://books.google.com/books?id=q2nWtD8_UUUC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=%22he+was+no+great+diarist%22&source=web&ots=8xu2C1vG4c&sig=Zfyy-tztXl1WY1X0S0vmzMgplcM#PPA106,M1) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Red\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Black)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/113 "2007-10-07T18:27:25Z")
Peter Kropotkin’s “The Conquest of Bread” It can actually be accessed free online at [Kropotkin: Conquest of Bread](http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/conquest/toc.html) ---
**Author:** ![WomanofScorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WomanofScorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WomanofScorn)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/114 "2007-10-07T19:08:48Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] No kidding. It may be a wonderful book [**Water for Elephants**], but after the horse killings and elephant punishment part I read last night, I’m not sure I’m going to keep going. Is that the worst of it, or is there a lot more? [/QUOTE] I’m probably the most squeamish about this sort of thing, but I was able to read through it. I promise you, keep reading, it really is an excellent book. ---
**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 7, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/115 "2007-10-07T21:49:34Z")
Okay, at the end of this month I have some coast-to-coast flights. I already have one book picked out. Of the following, which should I read on the plane, and why? Jeannette Walls: The Glass Castle Sara Gruen: Water for Elephants Chuck Palahniuk: Survivor Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love Greg Mortenson & David Relin: Three Cups of Tea We can play this game again in November and December if you like. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/116 "2007-10-08T01:31:45Z")
Stephen Colbert’s new book I Am America (And So Can You!) is being released on October 9 - I’ll be reading that asap. I got a blad of it and it is quite hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/117 "2007-10-08T02:18:18Z")
Non-fiction: Almost a Miracle by John Ferling – a highly readable telling of how the United States somehow mannaged to defeat Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. I highly recommend it. Fiction: The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke – tells the story of post-Katrina New Orleans and the craziness that ensues. ---
**Author:** ![Vimp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vimp/32/4186_2.png) [@Vimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vimp)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/118 "2007-10-09T04:56:53Z")
Just finished Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale” (which IIRC was originally recommended somewhere here on the SDMB). It was breathtakingly good. Another great read was “Witch Cradle” by Kathleen Hills. A mystery set in the early 1950’s in a small Scandinavian community of Upper Peninsula Michigan, involving members of the Finnish community who have accepted Stalin’s invitation to relocate to the USSR. It’s good enough that I’m going to search out her earlier books. I loved Kate Atkinson’s “Case Histories,” so I have picked up her “Emotionally Weird.” Haven’t started it yet. I’ve been trying to read “The Name of the Wind,” but I can’t seem to get into it. Will keep trying, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/119 "2007-10-09T05:12:54Z")
I dumped **Acacia** by David Durham. Either my standards are getting higher, or I’m just old and impatient. One of Durham’s characters did something that I thought was implausible, and he changed direction with another character. After he did that, I started nitpicking his word choices and sentence structure. Once that happens, there’s no going back. Feeling guilty, I went back to a previously dumped book, **Our American King** by David Lozell Martin, one of my favorite writers. It’s a post-apocalypse story about a charismatic figure (the king in the title) who gathers survivors and challenges what’s left of the government. What I like best about it (this time) is the narrator, Mary. She’s what we used to call “lippy”, and her attitude cracks me up. I also like how Martin describes the way the apocalypse happens. It started with an oil/economic crisis, and the collapse doesn’t happen gradually, with fewer and fewer people being able to buy gas, or keep their jobs. Things are “bad” for awhile, but suddenly there’s what Martin calls the “tipping point”, and everything crumbles suddenly. Riots, anarchy, food shortages, government crackdowns, etc. One day things were “normal” for millions of people, the next day their lives were changed forever. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/120 "2007-10-09T12:01:15Z")
I’m reading Greenspan’s book, **In the Age of Turbulence**. I’m not much of a biography reader (or auto) but I knew I’d dig his take on the major economic decisions of the last 50 years. It really picked up after he got away from his youth, and into him doing real work. But, I’m going on a trip in a week, and I’m leaving that behind and bringing the final Harry Potter book with me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=7)