# Whatcha reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 3, 1999, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857 "1999-11-03T16:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/21 "1999-11-04T06:31:00Z")
For my own enjoyment, I just finished reading _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_. It was good enough that I’ll be getting the sequel. Out of sheer boredom, I picked up the copy of _The Ultimate Sex Guide_ that my roommate had bought for her mom. For someone that’s been locked in a closet all their life, it probably wouldn’t have been half bad. My complaints were that all the couples portrayed were: - white - yuppie - hetero - airbrushed to within an inch of their lives (on a couple of them, their navels had been airbrushed out.) There were even a couple of pages explaining _how to **masturbate** _. Maybe I’m weird, but I never thought it was that hard to figure out. ---
**Author:** ![Dirty\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Dirty\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dirty_Devil)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/22 "1999-11-04T06:33:00Z")
Demo said: “A friend just lent me “The Monkeywrench Gang”. It is incredible!” Glad you like it 😉 I’m currently re-reading “E Tu, Babe” by Mark Leyner. It’s sort of a 1990’s cross between Zaphod Beeblebrox and Bukaroo Bonzai, with cyberpunk overtones thrown in. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/23 "1999-11-04T06:53:00Z")
Steal This Dream by Larry Sloman,about the life and death of Abbie Hoffman. It’s got a lousy ending. Just read Triumph of The Straight Dope finally! Also,Worth Fighting For by Mr. Quayle.(Harry Potter! :)) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/24 "1999-11-03T19:02:00Z")
I just finished Bag of Bones, by Stephen King, and now I am going to start Of Masques and Martyrs, by Christopher Golden. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/25 "1999-11-03T19:05:00Z")
I finished \* Bridget Jones’ Diary /\* yesterday (it was p.g.) and am currently reading \* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone \*. It is entertaining in the way The Narnia Chronicles are entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/26 "1999-11-03T19:18:00Z")
I’m reading _Beloved_ for a class. I think it sucks great big hairy donkey balls, and so does most of the rest of the class. Next week’s book (I think) is _The Crying of Lot 49._ ---
**Author:** ![Sylence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Sylence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylence)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/27 "1999-11-03T19:52:00Z")
_Quantum Mechanics_, by P. J. E. Peebles. _Sighs_ – Sylence * * * And now, for my next trick, I will talk in spooky half-references. ---
**Author:** ![Yankee\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7ea924/32.png) [@Yankee\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankee_Blue)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/28 "1999-11-03T19:53:00Z")
The Raven and the Nightingale “A modern mystery of E.A. Poe” I just started it and no one is dead yet. * * * ~tomorrow is promised to no one~ ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/29 "1999-11-03T20:02:00Z")
Recently finished _Carl Sagan: A Life_ by Keay Davidson. Also recently finished _Lay This Body Down_ by our own GregAtlanta (Gregory A. Freeman), who I haven’t seen around here much lately. Now reading _Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science_ by John Gribbin. Also listening to _Interesting Times_, by Terry Pratchett (a discworld novel) in the car. ---
**Author:** ![JBENZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@JBENZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBENZ)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/30 "1999-11-03T20:05:00Z")
“The Conquest of Gaul” by Gaius Julius Caesar and “Warfare in the Classical World” by John Warry. Anybody needs to besiege a walled city, just drop me a note. I got it down pat. Roman: “Waddaya doin’ with that Elephant?” Hannibal: (pause) “What Elephant?” * * * JB Lex Non Favet Delicatorum Votis ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/31 "1999-11-03T20:06:00Z")
I just stopped at the bookstore last night. So, I am now reading: _Our Dumb Century_ _Tuesdays With Morrie_ & re-reading _Charlotte’s Web_, this time to my daughter. Plus, I’m still working on several books that I’ve been reading for the last couple of months. Waste Flick Lives! ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/32 "1999-11-03T20:22:00Z")
Re-reading the Necroscope series by Brian Lumby. Drug them out 'cause my fiance liked the movie 6th sense so much, I told her it was kinda the same principle…she read about 4 pages and gave up…So I started in on them again… * * * “Love thine enemies…it really pisses them off.” -Anon ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/33 "1999-11-03T21:33:00Z")
Just finished _'Tis_ by Frank McCourt for Book Club; currently reading _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez because I have never read it and it’s the favorite book of the New Squeeze. Next on the agenda is _The Gospel According To The Son_ by Norman Mailer, and the second Harry Potter book (not necessarily in that order). ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/34 "1999-11-03T22:04:00Z")
_Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line_, by Ben Hamper. Great book. _Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease_. I must say the plot is a little dry. Dr. J ---
**Author:** ![Globe-trotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cab0a1/32.png) [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/35 "1999-11-03T22:42:00Z")
I’m reading “For your eye alone” : Letters 1976-1995, by Robertson Davies, as well as “French Relations” by Fiona Walker. * * * Sex appeal – Give generously ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/36 "1999-11-03T23:05:00Z")
Jodih, did you like _'Tis_? I liked it a lot, but a friend was disappointed that it seemed darker than the first. And Dr J, I dunno if you are aware of it or not, but Hamp has a link from Michael Moore’s webpage. Waste Flick Lives! ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/37 "1999-11-03T23:07:00Z")
I loved Rivithead. I had to read it for some Management class in college. Very funny very enjoyable book. pat ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/38 "1999-11-04T00:49:00Z")
Just started Pratchett’s newest, **The Fifth Elephant** , have **Who’s Afraid of Beowulf** by T. Holt waiting in the wings. Elephant so far is excellent… ## ‘Get me all the information you can on Commander Vimes of the the Anhk-Morpork Watch.’ ‘Why, is he a diplomat?’ ‘No, he is the _reason_ we have diplomats.’ \>\>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.\<\< —The dragon observes ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/39 "1999-11-04T01:18:00Z")
I just finished reading **A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again** by David Foster Wallace and **Barrel Fever** by David Sedaris. Was reading both of them at the same time (Wallace in my free time and Sedaris to stay awake during classes). Both were great, especially the Wallace one. I’m now reading **A Scanner Darkly** by Philip K. Dick. So far I like it. * * * “I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.” –Wayne Knight ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857/40 "1999-11-04T02:46:00Z")
I love the book threads – there should always be one going, don’t you think? Always get great recommendations. Loved Rivethead too, esp. since we have our own version of “Koala T. Bear” where I work. (And the drugs and job sharing too.) Alias, Grace by Margaret Atwood is readable not only as a psychological did-she-do-it but also for the detailed picture of servant (unmarried female) life in the late 1800’s. Recently read Incident at Twenty Mile by Trevanian, and if you like psycho killer/historical/romance/westerns, go for it. (I loved it.) Am about half-way through “999”, an over-hyped collection of original horror fiction. It’s no “Dark Forces”, but if you want to check out the new horror writers, and see how some of the old ones are holding up, it’s okay. Also, please read The Descent by Jeffrey Long if you’re looking for an original adventure story about the discovery of hell – not perfect, but better than it had a right to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/10857.md?page=3)