# Whatcha reading Feb. (09) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898 "2009-01-31T19:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/141 "2009-02-24T14:25:09Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’ve been reading Tom Swift Jr. books I got from my wife’s house, and just finished **Tom Swift and the Space Solartron** … The two worst howlers: … Tom takes his invention to the nuclear reactor he owns, but that isn’t enough - so he takes a solar power cell into orbit, because obviously there is more solar power up there. :eek::eek: This may not be the appropriate thread for this question, but, and granted I have not actively studied this in a couple of years, isn’t this actually the case? That there is more “solar power” in orbit? Only about 50% of the total solar energy delivered to the atmosphere of Earth actually makes it past atmospherical reflection and absorption to ground level, if I remember introductory climatology correctly. So although the gains might not be tremendous (depending on the size for your power cell), the idea is certainly viable. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/142 "2009-02-24T14:29:34Z")
I’m currently reading Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. It’s a collection of epitaphs, written from the deceased’s own point of view, in a town that seems somewhere between Grover’s Corners and Knockemstiff. I don’t generally like poetry, but this is really good. My about-to-be-former car audiobook is Superstition, by David Ambrose. The premise is that a psychologist and a journalist get together with a group of friends and decide to create a ghost. First few chapters, some interesting backstory…next few chapters, the flimsy, stereotyped main characters have predictable conversations and the author sticks in some clumsy, clichéd romance…next few chapters, the ghost group talks and talks and talks about an imaginary guy and the Ouija board begins to move. I wondered at first if I was being too hard on this book because I’m listening to it right after On Writing by Stephen King, but I’m nearly ready now to admit it just sucks. I scream out loud during the love scenes so I don’t have to hear the author embarrass himself. (What, y’all never scream in your car?) I’ll probably listen for a day or two more until I get a new audiobook, but this one is terminally ill. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/143 "2009-02-24T14:37:17Z")
For those using the paperback swap site: what does it cost to send a paperback via US mail? ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/144 "2009-02-24T14:48:16Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > For those using the paperback swap site: what does it cost to send a paperback via US mail? A mass market paperback costs $2.23 by media mail. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/145 "2009-02-24T14:49:18Z")
I like to alternate between fiction and nonfiction, I read for enjoyment, but when I’m done with a book I’d like to learn something that wasn’t just made up. Right now I’m 1/3 into _Afghanistan: A Short History_. The book is decent and written by a veteran British diplomat which was why I got it, I feel American authors dumb history down too much. ---
**Author:** ![Seeker\_of\_Truth\_and\_Beauty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Seeker\_of\_Truth\_and\_Beauty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seeker_of_Truth_and_Beauty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/146 "2009-02-24T14:52:13Z")
Never mind. I’m too slow. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/147 "2009-02-24T14:56:24Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > And lastly, _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_, by Michael Chabon. I’m also ambivalent about this book. It’s great writing, and the movement between comic world and real world is done amazingly well. Still, I can’t bring myself to read more than a chapter every time I pick it up. Why that is so, I don’t know – it’s not that I dislike the book at all… I’ve recently read two of Chabon’s books. I liked both of them, but I couldn’t read his prose for long stretches of time, either. I’d read a chapter or two and feel the need to put it down, but I was always glad to pick it back up again later. It was weird, because usually if I like a book I’ll go through it in two or three sittings. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/148 "2009-02-24T17:34:43Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > For those of us strapped for cash, but with a jones for reading, I found this website: [www.paperbackswap.com](http://www.paperbackswap.com). Sounds like a good deal, so I joined up. I’ve been using that site for a while. I’m so-so with my experience. It’s nice to get rid of the books I don’t want and know they’re going to someone who appreciates them however some of the books I’ve received have been pretty low quality. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/149 "2009-02-24T17:48:20Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > …I really need to read some Sedaris. I urge you… nay, I beg you, I _implore_ you… please, get Sedaris’s books on tape! Half the fun (if not more) is his delivery of his own material. I love the guy, and I’ve never laughed as hard reading his stuff myself as hearing _him_ read it. (I’ve been to several public readings of Sedaris’s, and have briefly met him twice. The man is a genius). Just finished reading Tolkien’s _The Hobbit_ aloud with my nine-year-old son, who really enjoyed it (although my voice of Gollum freaked him out). Now we’re reading Tolkien’s short story (and omitted LOTR appendix) “The Quest of Erebor,” in which Gandalf explains what was _really_ going on while Thorin & Co. blundered about. Good stuff. I’m about two-thirds done with Peter Carey’s _True Story of the Kelly Gang_, about Ned Kelly, Australia’s semi-mythical answer to Robin Hood and Jesse James. It’s a pretty big but pretty good book, told in dialectical Australian and formatted as if it were the long-lost autobiography of Kelly himself. Hadn’t realized how much anti-Irish discrimination there was in Australia in the late 1800s. This is my book club’s latest selection. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/150 "2009-02-24T18:51:46Z")
Had to get some car work done this morning, so I took Bill Bryson’s _In a Sunburned Country_ to read. It’s very funny so far. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/151 "2009-02-24T19:49:20Z")
My mom recently sent me “The Shack”. I am not real sure WHAT to think about it (I finished it last night). It’s got me kind of upset, actually. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/152 "2009-02-24T20:46:36Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > My mom recently sent me “The Shack”. I am not real sure WHAT to think about it (I finished it last night). It’s got me kind of upset, actually. How come? Tell us more! ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/153 "2009-02-24T20:53:27Z")
I’m working my way through Kathy Reichs’ Bones series. I’ve read through Monday Mourning, the 2004 book. I picked up Christopher Moore’s Fool, haven’t started it yet but looking very much forward to it. I also have Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age on deck. Currently reading Heat Lightening by John Sandford. It’s a fun, light detective read. His most famous character is Lucas Davenport, this book’s protagonist is Virgil Flowers. S’ok. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/154 "2009-02-24T21:55:26Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > How come? Tell us more! It’s somewhat hard to express. For a number of years I’ve had pretty much a laissez faire attitude towards God - while raised until I was 18 by devout Lutheran parents, I somewhat let it all go as I got older. I’m 42, well, 43 in about 10 days, and as I’m getting older, I’m finding that I am thinking about more things moreso than I used to. You know the old expression, “Ignorance is bliss?” I used to be one of the happiest mo-fo’s on the planet. But now that my son is in the Navy, my family is aging, I’m aging, bad things are happening to good people that I know within my own life, I’m starting to rethink things and question the things I didn’t question before. And this damn book isn’t making it any easier. I wanna go back to being stupid and happy!!! But now I’m THINKING. About adult stuff. IMPORTANT STUFF! And I just HATE that! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/155 "2009-02-24T22:51:26Z")
I would like to add, I’m really not the troglodyte I sometimes come across is - honest! 🙂 It’s just very uncomfortable thinking about these things after all this time and wondering about my perceptions and beliefs and such, and thinking about possibly changing them at this late date. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/156 "2009-02-24T23:05:37Z")
Thanks for that. And how exactly did _The Shack_ shake things up for you? ---
**Author:** ![Future\_Londonite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9dc877/32.png) [@Future\_Londonite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_Londonite)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/157 "2009-02-24T23:05:42Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > An excellent choice. 🙂 And so far I’m enjoying it tremendously ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/158 "2009-02-26T12:56:09Z")
Finished _Bone Crossed_ book four in the Mercy Thomson series. This is a serviceable urban fantasy series. Werewolves and vampires and Mercy is something called a Skinwalker - borrowed from American Indian legend. If you have read it and enjoy it, this fourth will work for you. We learn a little more about what it means to be a 'walker and why the vampires fear Mercy. There is more than one subplot and it all comes together in the end. If you have read the series and don’t like it, this won’t change your mind. If you haven’t read the series but like urban fantasy, try this series, but don’t start with this book - you need the back story. Next up: I think it will be Drood. But sometimes I change my mind. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/159 "2009-02-26T14:27:50Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Finished _Bone Crossed_ book four in the Mercy Thomson series. This is a serviceable urban fantasy series. Werewolves and vampires and Mercy is something called a Skinwalker - borrowed from American Indian legend. I really like that series (the first two books are among my favorite urban fantasy) but I was a little disappointed with the new book. It felt rushed, particularly the first half. It did settle down in the second half, but I still thought the story could have used another 100 pages. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/160 "2009-02-26T19:32:26Z")
I started two books last night: _Supreme Courtship_, by Christopher Buckley _The Pillars of the Earth_, by Ken Follett I’m not really taken by either of them as of yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898.md?page=9)