# Whatcha reading Sept. (08) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684 "2008-09-02T15:05:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **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:** [September 27, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/161 "2008-09-27T07:26:43Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’m off to the hospital on Monday for some shoulder surgery and will be in for a few days. While there, I’ll finish Robert Harris’ _Pompeii_ and then begin his _Imperium_. > > Does anyone have any comments on Thomas Pynchon’s _Against the Day_? Should I keep that in the queue or ditch it? Finished Robert Harris’ _Pompeii_ in the hospital and got halfway through his _Imperium_. Both are excellent books, and I am now a big Robert Harris fan. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/162 "2008-09-27T08:11:42Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished Robert Harris’ _Pompeii_ in the hospital and got halfway through his _Imperium_. Both are excellent books, and I am now a big Robert Harris fan. _Fatherland_ is even better, if you can believe that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![moi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@moi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moi)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/163 "2008-09-27T15:57:14Z")
[QUOTE=me] I finished **Love in the Time of Cholera** this week and am starting Chuck Pahlaniuk’s **Rant**. This was an odd transition, to be sure. [/QUOTE] Finished **Rant** , plus Warren Ellis’s **Crooked Little Vein** (in one night, no less!) and Nicci French’s **The Red Room**. Enjoyed the Pahlaniuk and Ellis and, in all honesty, just read **Red Room** because it was on my bookshelf and I wanted to get it on Paperback Swap. It was taking up valuable space on my bookshelf, and one read through confirmed it wasn’t a keeper. I’m now reading **Fahrenheit 451** for the first time. > [@PeacePlease](#): > > I thought **The Raw Shark Texts** vastly over-hyped. Interesting premise…it just went on forever and ever and I just knew how it would end with still 200 pages to read. I got bored but I finished. So sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy **The Raw Shark Texts**. I don’t know anyone else who’s read it, and I _really_ liked 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:** [September 28, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/164 "2008-09-28T01:22:26Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > _Fatherland_ is even better, if you can believe that. 🙂 Strongly seconded. One of my favorite alt-history books. Chillingly realistic view of Nazi Germany c. 1964. ---
**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:** [September 28, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/165 "2008-09-28T15:49:06Z")
I finished **Quicksilver** , which I liked, but not as much as **Cryptonomicon**. Book one was amazing, but then book two really bogged down in spots, and I didn’t like Eliza very much. Book three was good. I’m in the middle of Joe Haldeman’s newest book, **Marsbound**. It’s ok, not one of his best. I’m nervous about the ending, because it has aliens, and I’ve been sometimes disappointed with what Haldeman has done with aliens in the past. I’m going on vacation in a week, and I’m trying to hold off on Naomi Novik’s **Victory of Eagles** so I can take it with me. > [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I found a copy of _Flashman_ at a local bookshop and grabbed it- I’m still in the first chapter but thoroughly enjoying it! I ran across a copy of **Flashman and the Redskins** at my local used bookstore the other day. I went ahead and bought it, although I’m only up to **Flashman at the Charge**. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/166 "2008-09-28T16:17:14Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I ran across a copy of **Flashman and the Redskins** at my local used bookstore the other day. I went ahead and bought it, although I’m only up to **Flashman at the Charge**. Does he seem to come out of character to you in FATC? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/167 "2008-09-28T16:22:50Z")
I’m skimming through Thomas Frank’s _The Wrecking Crew_, which is a polemic against conservative think tanks and corporate lobbyists. It’s OK, if a little overheated. I like Frank’s writing style. ---
**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:** [September 28, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/168 "2008-09-28T21:15:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Does he seem to come out of character to you in FATC? I haven’t started it yet. I’ll read it soon, and let you know what I think. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/169 "2008-09-29T05:41:04Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I ran across a copy of **Flashman and the Redskins** at my local used bookstore the other day. I went ahead and bought it, although I’m only up to **Flashman at the Charge**. I can’t recall where _Flash for Freedom_ falls into the line-up, but whereas I normally say you can read the Flashman books in pretty much any order, I always say the exception is you should read _Flash for Freedom_ before _Flashman and the Redskins_, just for the background as to why he’s found himself in the US. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2008, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/170 "2008-09-29T12:47:00Z")
Finished Last Call, by Tim Powers. Like Anubis Gates, it was densely plotted and had a few more characters than I was able to really keep track of, but despite that it held my interest and I enjoyed it very much. Right in the middle of it, my husband asked me what it was about and I just had to answer very vaguely because to take a stab at a real answer would take too long and also make me sound like a lunatic. 🙂 I plan to read the rest of Powers’ books, but it’ll be slow going for me because I don’t have much of the total-immersion reading time I’d like to give them. I’m about halfway through You Want Fries With That? : a white-collar burnout experiences life at minimum wage, by Prioleau Alexander, nonfiction about an ad executive who quits his job to work as a minimum-wage pizza delivery driver, ice cream scooper, medical tech, construction site cleanup guy, fast-food worker, and cowboy. Humorous and only mildly irritating. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/171 "2008-09-30T19:41:27Z")
As has been my habit, I have started the [Oct thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10260265#post10260265) a day early. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684.md?page=8)