# 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:** 9
**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 19, 2007, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/161 "2007-10-19T03:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] I think many of us who went to college in Pennsylvania read _The Jungle_ for just this reason. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard stories of people reading \*The Jungle \* and being turned into vegetarians from the experience. I’ve read _The Jungle_ and did not feel the least bit inclined to become a vegetarian. Just what do people think goes on in a slaughterhouse anyway? ---
**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 20, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/162 "2007-10-20T04:35:20Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve heard stories of people reading The Jungle and being turned into vegetarians from the experience. I’ve read The Jungle and did not feel the least bit inclined to become a vegetarian. Just what do people think goes on in a slaughterhouse anyway? I just know that if I were more clever I could extract a Soylent Green joke from this. I think for many people it wasn’t the slaughtering per se, but the description of the conditions and needlessly harmful acts that turned them veg. ---
**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 20, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/163 "2007-10-20T09:44:54Z")
Finished _Skinny Dip_, by Carl Hiassen, and am about to start **McAuslan in the Rough** , by George MacDonald Fraser. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/164 "2007-10-24T14:32:31Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] Finished _Not the Thing I Was: Thirteen Years at Bruno Bettelheim’s Orthogenic School._ I’ll review it over the weekend unless my grading is a more formidable task than I think it will be. [/QUOTE] Uh oh. Nothing to shout about, huh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/165 "2007-10-24T14:34:46Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] am about to start **McAuslan in the Rough** , by George MacDonald Fraser. [/QUOTE] Excellent choice! 🙂 When you are through with the McAuslan books, you may want to read his autobiography of his experiences in Burma during WW2, called _Quartered safe Out Here_. One of the best WW2 memoirs around. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/166 "2007-10-24T14:58:16Z")
On my recent 9+ hour plane rides, I read _The Other Boleyn Girl_, _Rebecca_, and _Water For Elephants_. Currently I’m reading a _People_ magazine and trying to recover from jet lag. 😛 ---
**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 24, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/167 "2007-10-24T14:58:34Z")
I’m behind in my reviews, but that reflects my workload this week, not the books. I’ll catch up soon, I promise. Reading a book in the tub by the people who started Lonely Planet; on the treadmill, _The Yiddish Policeman’s Union,_ and in bed, _The Social Lives of Medicines._ I saw some of my undergrads reading _The Glass Castle_ (assigned by another instructor) rather than foraging for coffee on break, so it must be good. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/168 "2007-10-24T17:03:20Z")
Just finished [Out Stealing Horses](http://www.amazon.com/Out-Stealing-Horses-Per-Petterson/dp/0099506130/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1288963-6108169?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193244952&sr=1-1) by Per Petterson. Lovely, unsentimental story of a boy’s summer with his dad in a cabin in Norway. Amazon US only has used copies, but Amazon UK has new ones. This one won a big award in Europe, and it’s amazing. Now reading _New Grub Street_ by George Gissing and am enjoying it. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/169 "2007-10-24T17:15:34Z")
Barbara Tuchman, _The March of Folly_ . Written in the 1980’s, it’s about how “wooden-headed” governments wind up shooting themselves in the feet through certain military endeavours. It has four sections, including one on the British Empire’s loss of her American colonies, and another on Vietnam (from 1945 on). Just about every page evokes a parallel to the U.S.'s situation in Iraq today. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/170 "2007-10-24T17:33:07Z")
Father Knows Less: One Dad’s Quest to Answer His Son’s Most Baffling Questions, by Wendell Jamieson. Well, he’s no Cecil Adams. I’ve been on the verge of tossing it aside more than once, but each entry is short, so it’s a good fit for my ten-minutes-a-day-during-breakfast reading time. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/171 "2007-10-24T17:46:48Z")
I just finished **The English Passengers** , already mentioned a couple of times in this thread, and enjoyed it very much. Also I read Joe Haldeman’s newest book **The Accidental Time Machine**. It’s a straightforward little time travel story, but Haldeman’s stuff is always pretty good. Now I’m halfway through Ken Follett’s **The Pillars of the Earth**. I was really annoyed in the beginning by the author’s writing style - it’s choppy and repetitive, and the inner voice for every character sounds childlike. But I’ve gotten accustomed to it, and I’m hooked on the story now. ---
**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 24, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/172 "2007-10-24T17:51:56Z")
Finished and loved _Water for Elephants_, re-read _Sense and Sensibility_ and now I’m on a Vietnam kick. I’m reading and really enjoying _up Country_, by Nelson DeMille, _Lizzie’s War_ by Tim Farrington and I just started _Nam-a-rama_, by Phillip Jennings. I hope I don’t get 'em all mixed up. ---
**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 24, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/173 "2007-10-24T21:59:32Z")
I just finished _Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral_. The idea is charming, really, and I like the characters, but the writing isn’t very good. I’d classify it as heavy-handed cosmic. (Really, I was tempted to count the number of times she used the word _cosmic_ in the kitchy, New Age sense.) I probably would have put it down if I hadn’t been reading it for my book group. 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. Up next: _Freedom and Necessity_. 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 25, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/174 "2007-10-25T03:29:11Z")
[QUOTE=Malthus] Excellent choice! 🙂 When you are through with the McAuslan books, you may want to read his autobiography of his experiences in Burma during WW2, called _Quartered safe Out Here_. One of the best WW2 memoirs around. [/QUOTE] Would love to, but the [private library](http://www.neilsonhayslibrary.com/index.shtml) I belong to does not have it. I love Fraser’s work, and I assume **McAuslan in the Rough** and \*\*The General Danced at Dawn \*\* are largely autobiographical. You can find some of the Flashman series in a few of the bookstores here, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/175 "2007-10-25T05:23:03Z")
From now until eternity, it seems I’ll be reading off my dystopian-must-reads. I’m on the last 20 pages of **Brave New World** , I’m dying to start **Oryx and Crake** , after that, I’ll toss in a few **Guns, Germs and Steel,** then probably **Lathe of Heaven**. I must say, this kick I’m on has really lit my fire for reading again, I never, ever am not reading something, but since I’ve started this, I’m plowing through them. P.S. I really didn’t like **A Canticle for Liebowitz.** I really must have missed out on something significant the way people praise it. ---
**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 25, 2007, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/176 "2007-10-25T05:39:50Z")
I dig \*The Lathe of Heaven. \* I use excerpts sometimes when I teach professional ethics. Plus my first images of Portland were formed when I read it and it’s pleasing to superimpose those images on actual Portland (where Le Guin lives). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/177 "2007-10-25T13:26:16Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Would love to, but the [private library](http://www.neilsonhayslibrary.com/index.shtml) I belong to does not have it. I love Fraser’s work, and I assume **McAuslan in the Rough** and \*\*The General Danced at Dawn \*\* are largely autobiographical. You can find some of the Flashman series in a few of the bookstores here, but that’s about it. [/QUOTE] You assume correctly, I believe. The difference of course is that the “McAuslan” books mostly take place after the end of the war, and are mostly comedies (indeed, some of them are hysterically funny); his straight autobiography is his record of the War, and moving and tragic rather than funny (though it has its moments of humour as well). 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. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/178 "2007-10-25T13:32:51Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] From now until eternity, it seems I’ll be reading off my dystopian-must-reads. I’m on the last 20 pages of **Brave New World** , I’m dying to start **Oryx and Crake** , after that, I’ll toss in a few **Guns, Germs and Steel,** then probably **Lathe of Heaven**. I must say, this kick I’m on has really lit my fire for reading again, I never, ever am not reading something, but since I’ve started this, I’m plowing through them. P.S. I really didn’t like **A Canticle for Liebowitz.** I really must have missed out on something significant the way people praise it. [/QUOTE] **Guns, Germs and Steel** isn’t a dystopian book, though; a more dystopian selection by the same authour (again non-fiction) would be **Collapse**. A recent must-read dystopian novel (or rather, apocalyptic novel) is Cormac McCarthy’s **The Road** , though it is not for everyone … “bleak” and “minimalist” doesn’t begin to describe it. As for **Canticle** , I read it years ago and liked it a lot; I think part of the appeal was the cyclic nature of history, and the fact that errors created out of pure ignorance spark faith (for example, a shopping list added to an ordinary blueprint becomes a sacred text). ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/179 "2007-10-26T02:32:24Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] **plnnr** , I haven’t read any of The Big Three – Cheever, Roth, or Updike. I’m interested to know what you think about Updike. [/QUOTE] I think the Rabbit series is terrific. For me, it’s one of the great American novels. It’s the only Updike I’ve been able to get into, and I have 2 or 3 more of his books. I just got done with _A Passage to India_ which was just OK. I much prefer Rohinton Mistry for tales of India. I suppose I should try reading some Kipling. I’m putting _A Passage to India_ on my Netflix queue to do a comparison, though. I’m working on _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ and I’ve got _Infinite Jest_ and _Little Children_ as backups. _Infinite Jest_ is an anvil though and is tough to take anywhere, even in the paperback version. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/180 "2007-10-26T11:18:01Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] I’ll move [Steven Pinker’s “The Stuff of Thought”] up in the queue – it’ll be great to have someone to discuss it with! [/QUOTE] Sorry, **Lionne** , just can’t do it. I’m 200 pages into it and though I’m feeling guilty about bailing, bail I must – too technical for me, and I have too many other things I really want to read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=10)