# Whatcha reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556 "2000-01-06T21:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/21 "2000-01-06T22:42:00Z")
MPSIMS. Actually, I’m getting ready to start _Maskerade_, one of the Discworld novels. You’re in for a lot of great reading, Moosie. If you haven’t read 'em, I highly recommend _Hogfather, Small Gods,_ and _Pyramids_. They’re all good, but those are my favorites. * * * He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break. And while Yori raged against his unbending courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back. His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought. -_Yakamo’s Funeral_ ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/22 "2000-01-06T23:57:00Z")
Sealemon, Just got done re-reading Deed, is always enjoyable, I wish Moon would return to that world. Maybe not Paks, but the world. Pratchett’s The Fifth Elephant is also very good, use [Amazon.com.uk](http://Amazon.com.uk) to get it in the states. And his Science of Diskworld is also excellent. Am currently re-reading Fanuilh(sp?) by Daniel Hood. Pretty decent work. Am also re-reading Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schnieir. * * * \>\>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.\<\< —The dragon observes ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/23 "2000-01-07T00:03:00Z")
“If only they could talk” by James Herriot. and a novel my daughter is writing. Both very good =) * * * I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature! ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/24 "2000-01-07T00:07:00Z")
_Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983_ by Barbara Kingsolver. Just got it yesterday from Amazon, and it completes my Kingsolver collection. Not really a topic I would normally go for, but I love Ms. Kingsolver’s writing. (BTW, **jodih** , I loved _The Poisonwood Bible_.) * * * Mr. K’s Link of the Month: [Why Plastic Grocery Bags Are Better Than God](http://www.flud.com/ass/bag.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/25 "2000-01-07T00:38:00Z")
Well, I’m looking forward to reading it – I’ve heard good things. I love these threads; you guys have given me so many good ideas for what to read next. 🙂 * * * Jodi _Fiat Justitia_ ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/26 "2000-01-07T00:52:00Z")
_Ignorant Armies_–a history of the World War 1 era invasion of the Soviet Union by Great Britain & the United States. No, I’m not kidding; we did that. Trying to rescue pro-Czarist White Russian forces. It failed miserably. _Alien Science_–serious, non-UFOster book on probable alien life. Very good stuff! _Bride Of The Rat God_ --by Barabra Hambly. Schlock, but damn fun schlock! * * * “Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.”----Jung ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/27 "2000-01-07T01:34:00Z")
“334” by Thomas Disch – sort of a 1984 for the 21st century. Just got it yesterday and it looks to be fun. “Residents of the public housing project at 334 East 11th Street live in a world of rationed babies and sanctioned drug addiction. Real food is displayed in museums and hospital attendants moonlight as body-snatchers.” Sounds bleak but Disch writes with a lot of humor and sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzy-wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b38774/32.png) [@fuzzy-wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzy-wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/28 "2000-01-07T01:43:00Z")
More Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul…which was given to me at Christmas by a very close and dear friend Testament by Grisham and I Know this Much is True by Wally Lamb * * * “Do or do not, there is no try” - Yoda ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/29 "2000-01-07T01:59:00Z")
_Lenin’s Embalmers_ by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson - an odd, but interesting , read. I usually try to keep a couple of books going at once and my other has been _With the Old Breed_ which, oddly, I’m crapping out on. A good enough book, and it’s rare that I crap out, but it’s happened with a few (some of note - although I relish and reference the excellent snapshots of life captured by Tom Wolfe, I couldn’t finish _Bonfire of the Vanities_; neither could I take the whole dose of _Catch-22_… I do better with history and science than I do with fiction). Next in line is _We Die Alone_. ---
**Author:** ![MOJO\_LIZARD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MOJO\_LIZARD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOJO_LIZARD)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/30 "2000-01-07T02:11:00Z")
Anything Written by Andrew Vachss. * * * Fret not thyself because of evildoers… for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. ---
**Author:** ![Edlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8797f3/32.png) [@Edlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/31 "2000-01-07T02:21:00Z")
I just started reading _Phantoms In The Brain_ by Ramachandran, M.D., PH.D. and Sandra Blakeslee. It has been deemed by Oliver Sacks, M.D., as “One of the most original and accessible neurology books of our generation”. It is absolutely fascinating and I’ve only just begun. * * * You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. -Harriet Woods- ---
**Author:** ![Snark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Snark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snark)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/32 "2000-01-07T02:22:00Z")
_Lord of the Rings_, for the fourth time in my life. I don’t care if “The FOundation Series” won Asimov the century’s “best-loved series” award; to me Tolkien will always hold that award. * * * “God would never let me be happy. He’d kill me first.” “I thought you didn’t believe in God.” “I do for the bad things.” - George Costanza ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/33 "2000-01-07T05:17:00Z")
_Perfect Murder Perfect Town_ by Lawrence Schiller (which I got from my sister for my birthday). _Wolfwalker_ Tara K. Harper _Urban Nightmares_ edited by Josepha Sherman and Keith R. A. DeCandido (short stories based on urban legends) _Carioca Fletch_ Gregory McDonald _The Ecolitan Enigma_ L.E. Modesitt, Jr. As soon as I finish one of these, I plan to start in on one of the Tom Clancy books I got for Christmas and birthday gifts. Which one? I haven’t decided yet. * * * Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99. “We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/34 "2000-01-07T07:16:00Z")
_Killing the Dream_ by Gerald Posner. It’s about James Ray and the assassination of Martin Luther King. _The Time of Feasting_ by Mick Farren, another book in my ongoing project to read every vampire novel written in the English language since 1950. And I’m rereading _What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew_ by Daniel Pool. It’s a description of life in 19th century Britain. **Uke** , you should check this book out if you’ve haven’t already. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/35 "2000-01-07T07:20:00Z")
I’m almost finished with Hearts in Atlantis. Then I am going to try to finish Stone of Farewell, which I started 6 months ago but then got sidetracked. ---
**Author:** ![Gumby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@Gumby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gumby)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/36 "2000-01-07T10:20:00Z")
I am just reading Catch 22 AGAIN, no other book has the ability to make me laugh like it does. Also reading Memoirs of a thinking Radish - the autobiography of Peter Medawar. V. interesting. ---
**Author:** ![MidnightVa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@MidnightVa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightVa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/37 "2000-01-07T10:53:00Z")
Oooh, Michelle, the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn set are so good. You’re in for a treat. Currently reading: _How To Think About Weird Things_ by Schick and Vaughn Just finished: _Mountain of Black Glass_ ny Tad Williams A question: Have any other skeptics found their enjoyment of fantasy novels declining as their skeptical philosophy matures? I used to love fantasy, and read it almost exclusively. Now I read sci/fi and non-fiction in approximately equal amounts and almost no fantasy. Does this sound familiar to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/38 "2000-01-07T14:35:00Z")
Fuzzy, PLEASE tell me “More Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul” is a parody title!!! Cant, I just finished “Wicked”—now I have to watch “Wizard of Oz” again! I’m in the midst of a bio of 19th-century theater manager Augustin Daly, and am off to the library to get the memoirs of Mlle. Vigee-LeBrun (Marie Antoinette’s court painter) and a novel by Tournee, “Bricks Without Straw.” I guess I’m being retro this month. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/39 "2000-01-07T15:09:00Z")
I am between books at teh moment. I should join the library at last. But a book I read recently that I recommend is Dave Duncan’s “The Gilded Chain”. Actually, any of Dave Duncan’s books are great, but this new series is told in a somewhat unique way this time, while not straying far from the Fantasy standards. It will also help to read the teen oriented novels that also take place in the same world, the first being “Sir Stalwart”. * * * **-PIGEONMAN-** Returning Soon! [The Legend Of PigeonMan](http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - **Watch this space…!** Great things are afoot! ---
**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:** [January 7, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556/40 "2000-01-07T16:04:00Z")
MidnightVa asked: > [@](#): > > A question: Have any other skeptics found their enjoyment of fantasy novels declining as their skeptical philosophy matures? I used to love fantasy, and read it almost exclusively. Now I read sci/fi and non-fiction in approximately equal amounts and almost no fantasy. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Not really. I mean, I love sci-fi/fantasy and I doubt anybody here would be skeptical of my skepticism. 😉 My father even once asked me why, if I don’t think UFOs are alien spaceships, etc., I like _Star Trek_ so much. I told him I don’t think there are elves and wizards running around, but I loved _Lord of the Rings_. The ones I _don’t_ care for are those that pretend to be on the boundary – the ones that act like they are “real life” type things and then insert all the paranormal crap. But that’s just my own personal preference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/12556.md?page=3)