# Whatcha reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2005, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380 "2005-05-18T11:19:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/21 "2005-05-18T14:46:34Z")
In what little time I have lately (remind me to start a Pit thread about my contractor…), I’ve been working my way through the _Astro City_ collections. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/22 "2005-05-18T14:59:25Z")
A book on the CBI (China Burma India) theater in WWII called “Jungle War,” by Gerald Astor. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/23 "2005-05-18T15:12:28Z")
**Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Steven W. Levitt** I will be starting it tonight, just got it from Amazon yesterday. Levitt is an economist at the University of Chicago, a post he got at a ridiculously early age like 30 or so. He examines things like the organizational structure of drug-dealing gangs, the economics of baby names, and the relationship between crime rate and abortion. I have just been reading Malcolm Gladwell’s books **Blink and The Tipping Point** , which I found very interesting but a little aimless, and Freakonomics seemed like a more focused examination of a similar nature. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/24 "2005-05-18T15:22:52Z")
I just finished re-reading _Hitchhiker’s_, and up next are _Cymbeline_ (for a class, but I’m not complaining ;)) and Alison Weir’s _The Wars of the Roses_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/25 "2005-05-18T15:24:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m also going to read **Shadows over Baker Street** , a collection of H.P. Lovecraft/Sherlock Holmes crossovers. Interesting… I have been on a “Holmes’ kick” for the past year or so, reading a lot of different Holmesian books. This one sounds different - let us know how it is. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/26 "2005-05-18T15:50:25Z")
[Comrades - Tales of a Brigadista in the Spanish Civil War](http://unp.unl.edu/bookinfo/3523.html) by Harry Fisher. Frankly, it sucks. Nothing on the political climate in Spain, very little on combat, but a whole lot of which labor activist or union organizer he saw there and what good commies they were. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/27 "2005-05-18T15:55:54Z")
‘The Godfather Returns’, by somebody who’s name I forget (not Mario Puzo). It’s not bad, kinda fleshes out Fredo’s betrayal, and has scenes from Michael’s early life including experiences in WWII. Never read Mario Puzo, so I can’t compare the new guy’s work. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/28 "2005-05-18T16:00:14Z")
> [@One And Only Wanderers](#): > > Just polished off the _Farseer trilogy_ . . . I assume you mean by Robin Hobb? Not Robert J. Sawyer, right? Sawyer’s novel actualy _Far-Seer,_ with a hyphen, and looking it up online, the trilogy is called “The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy”. Uh . . . catchy. But despite the fact that you’re almost certainly talking about a different trilogy, I’m going to babble about the Quintaglio trilogy anyway. I really enjoyed them, and I was reminded of them when I read _Deepness in the Sky_. (I’m going to box my comment just in case, but the spoilers from both sources are fairly minor.) [spoiler]In the second Quintaglio book, _Fossil Hunter_, the Galileo character, Asfan, violated tradition in not allowing the priest to devour all of the brood of children but one. (The’re dinosaurs. The babies are eaten when they are just hatchlings. Not that that makes things a lot less creepy.) So their family was an “abomination,” and the children grew up in an extraordinary situation where they were raised together with their siblings, instead of the usual one-child per brood rule. And then in _Deepness in the Sky_ there was a parallel situation, where once again, the scientific genius, Sherkaner Underhill, defied social convention in childrearing. The Underhills had children “out of phase,” which was considered an abomination. Just like in the Quintaglio book there were a bunch of children (this time of various ages) raised together as siblings, which was outside the norm. While it didn’t seem impossible for the Spiders to have more than one child in phase, it seemed a bit unusual, and none of the other characters talked about their siblings. As in the Quintaglio books, the unusually close-knit children go on to play an important role in unfolding events. So in both cases, the scientific innovator also becomes a social innovator.[/spoiler] ---
**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:** [May 18, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/29 "2005-05-18T16:00:30Z")
Finished this morning at breakfast: Under and alone : the true story of the undercover agent who infiltrated America’s most violent outlaw motorcycle gang by William Queen. It was okay. I was a litle annoyed about the constant use of “chick” when “woman” would have worked just as well. Then I have a pile from the library which is arranged on my piano in the order in which they must be read so that I have at least a chance of getting them returned on time. It’s very frustrating to have so much to read and no time to read it! And you know why I’m reading this thread? So I can collect more! Anyway, this is the pile. The Living Blood The Between My Soul to Keep, all by Tananarive Due A voice for the dead : a forensic investigator’s pursuit of the truth in the grave by James E. Starrs Small crimes in an age of abundance by Matthew Kneale The Night Country, or, the darkness on the edge of town by Stewart O’Nan Courtroom 302 : a year behind the scenes in an American criminal courthouse by Steve Bogira The art deco house : avant-garde houses of the 1920s and 1930s by Adrian Tinniswood Tuck everlasting by Natalie Babbitt Kick me : adventures in adolescence by Paul Feig Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke Jell-O : a biography by Carolyn Wyman Breaking the code : two teens reveal the secrets of better parent-child communication by Lara Fox Because I said so : 33 mothers write about children, sex, men, aging, faith, race, & themselves by Kate Moses Consumer Confidential : the money-saving secrets they don’t want you to know by Michael Finney On bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt Blink : the power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell The last universe by William Sleator The everything creative wedding ideas book : cultural traditions and offbeat themes to make your day extra-special by Jennifer Lata Rung The complete idiot’s guide to the perfect wedding by Teddy Lenderman Read the Bible–it will scare the hell out of you : why I am no longer a Christian by W. Dale Murphy Under the overpass by Michael Yankoski The bad mother’s handbook : a novel by Kate Long Bridal bargains : secrets to throwing a fantastic wedding on a realistic budget by Denise Fields Without conscience : the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us by Robert D. Hare ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/30 "2005-05-18T16:04:37Z")
Hm, weddings and psycho killers – a very … reassuring … list, **Dung Beetle**! **backs slowly out of the thread** ---
**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:** [May 18, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/31 "2005-05-18T16:13:36Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Hm, weddings and psycho killers – a very … reassuring … list, **Dung Beetle**! > > **backs slowly out of the thread** It was _you_ who told Grandma about my engagement, wasn’t it! **runs after twickster** ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/32 "2005-05-18T16:35:19Z")
I just recently finished John Moore’s “The Unhandsome Prince” which was a wonderful parody of the fairy tale genre. In fact, I liked it so much that I picked up another book of his “Heroics for Beginners,” which I am currently enjoying. On a more serious note, I’m also reading David Grinspoon’s “Lonely Planets” about the possibilites for extraterrestrial life. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/33 "2005-05-18T16:42:42Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > It was _you_ who told Grandma about my engagement, wasn’t it! > **runs after twickster** :eek: I was hoping you had forgotten about that! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/34 "2005-05-18T16:53:23Z")
Read _Cat in an Orange Twist_ yesterday. It kind of sucked, but I was expecting that. It’s mental popcorn. I’m going to finish _A Walk in the Woods_, by Bill Bryson, this afternoon. Read most of _The Intimate Life of L. M. Montgomery_ a few days ago. Just re-read _The Gift of Asher Lev_, by Chaim Potok. The first one’s still my favourite. I think I might go to the library and get out the _Emily_ series. It’s time to re-read them. Thank you, **Dung Beetle** , for reading Malcolm Gladwell. My only very dubious claim to fame is that I know his parents very well, so I always feel smug when people buy his books. Nevertheless I haven’t read _Blink_ yet. Maybe next week. I might read _At The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig_ for its title. Not sure what it’s about. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/35 "2005-05-18T17:09:50Z")
**The Elegant Universe** by Brian Greene Pretty interesting so far. It’s an overview of string theory written for the layman. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/36 "2005-05-18T17:13:35Z")
Now that the semester is over (yay!), I’m back to chain-reading legal/political/psychological thrillers:[ul][li]I started a few weeks ago with book one of Dean Koontz’s new _[Frankenstein](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553587889/qid=1116436292/sr=2-4/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_4/104-8811949-8635962)_ series, which was better than I expected it to be. Quite entertaining. I’m looking forward to the release of the next paperback this summer.[/li][li]Next up was Brad Meltzer’s _[The Zero Game](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446612111/qid=1116436374/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-8811949-8635962)_, which I was disappointed by. It just seemed very average to me. It was the first book of his that I’d read, and I probably won’t read him again any time soon.[/li][li]Now I’m at the start of John Lescroart’s _[The Second Chair](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451211413/qid=1116436423/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-8811949-8635962)_, which is the continuing saga of his Dismas Hardy character. I’ve read most of the other Hardy stories, and so far I’m enjoying this one, too.[/ul][/li]I’ll read “smart” stuff again soon enough, but for now I crave the brain candy. 😉 ---
**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:** [May 18, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/37 "2005-05-18T17:14:15Z")
_The Riot At Bucksnort & Other Western Tales_ by Robert E. Howard. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, was a resident of Texas, & lived among older folks who remembered the Wild West very clearly, as they were the ones who had made it wild. _Bucksnort_ is a collection of Howard’s Western Humor. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/38 "2005-05-18T18:36:51Z")
I’m juggling a few things. Currently my main selections are Henry James’ “A Passionate Pilgrim” (from the **Everyman Collection** of his short stories) and Edith Wharton’s “False Dawn” from **Old New York**. Waiting in reserve is Robert Hughes’ biography of **Goya** ; I need some time to devote to that one, since it’s so far out of my normal sphere of knowledge. Oh yeah, and current bathroom reading is the Bendis/Maleev **Daredevil** graphic novels. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/39 "2005-05-18T18:46:12Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > I started a few weeks ago with book one of Dean Koontz’s new _[Frankenstein](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553587889/qid=1116436292/sr=2-4/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_4/104-8811949-8635962)_ series, which was better than I expected it to be. Quite entertaining. I’m looking forward to the release of the next paperback this summer. I enjoyed that too and am also looking forward to the next one. I wish I had taken more time to realize that the second one wasn’t published - I hate waiting. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380/40 "2005-05-18T18:54:13Z")
Reading The DaVinci Code, because someone gave me a copy. If I can suspend disbelief, its a fun read, but it the sort of reading that really turns me off - fantasy presented as “real world historical truth.” Don’t mind it when its obscure, but when its a topic I know something about, drives me crazy. Reading Michael Chabon’s Summerland, which is wonderful so far. Find it in the kids section, but its 500 pages of Chabon - its a good grown up read. Reading Financial Accounting and Macroeconomics textbooks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading/304380.md?page=3)