# What's everyone reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868 "2006-01-27T17:44:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/81 "2006-01-30T19:08:26Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Sequel only in the loosest possible sense, that it’s a specific story based on the general premise of _American Gods_ – you definitely don’t need to have read _AG_ first. Okay – good to know. I knew that it used characters from **American Gods** , but was pretty sure it wasn’t about the same _main_ characters from the first ones. Also, since I haven’t read **Anansi Boys** yet (I’ve only read **AG** ), I didn’t know if there was any information in that one that would constitute a spoiler to events in the first. I presume you’ve read them both? How is the new one? ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/82 "2006-01-30T19:13:57Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > If you don’t already know, **Anansi Boys** is a sequel to **American Gods**. Although I have not read the new one, so I don’t know if you need to read American Gods first for the new one to make sense. But I’m pretty sure that the main characters in **Anansi Boys** are ones that were introduced in **American Gods**. No, you don’t need to have read _American Gods_. Aside from Anansi himself, there really isn’t any crossover. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/83 "2006-01-30T19:34:45Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > Okay – good to know. I knew that it used characters from **American Gods** , but was pretty sure it wasn’t about the same _main_ characters from the first ones. Also, since I haven’t read **Anansi Boys** yet (I’ve only read **AG** ), I didn’t know if there was any information in that one that would constitute a spoiler to events in the first. > > I presume you’ve read them both? How is the new one? I liked _Anansi Boys_ quite a bit – in part, of course, because the Anansi of the title is … a twickster … er, trickster … god. (Probably didn’t need to spoiler that, but whatever.) I expected fun, funny, and entertaining, and definitely got them. In fact, I’ve got a quote from the book stuck to my computer at home. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/84 "2006-01-30T20:56:50Z")
I enjoyed **Anansi Boys** a lot, but have not yet read **American Gods**. It made perfect sense. Last night my mom gave me a truly weird new book, called **[url=]The clumsiest people in Europe**. It is a selection from Mrs. Mortimer’s popular geography books for children, written in the mid-19th century. She wrote a lot of books, especially religious primers and readers for small children (Winston Churchill learned to read from her book), and was quite popular. But her geography books are simply stunning in their horrifying awfulness. Every country in the world is vilified–she’s not even very keen on England itself. Europe, of course, comes off best, but everyone is awful. For example: “Some places look pretty at a distance which look very ugly when you come up to them–Lisbon is one of those places.” “The Greeks do not bear their troubles well; when they are unhappy, they scream like babies.” (Iceland) “You must take care not to fall into one of these basins [geysers], for your poor little legs would be scalded…Sometimes the Icelanders do bathe in the warm basins–not as often as they should, for they are a dirty people–even their hands are so dirty that you would not like them to touch you…” It’s not a book you can read for long, but it’s certainly interesting and…instructive. And it triggers screams of laughter, being alternately horrific and hilarious. Mrs. Mortimer may well have been somewhat mad–as you will learn if you read the introduction. ---
**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:** [January 30, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/85 "2006-01-30T21:21:54Z")
Oh my. That sounds… amusing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/86 "2006-01-30T21:26:59Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > If you enjoyed Dawkin’s, you might wanna give this a look: [_At the Water’s Edge_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684856239/qid=1138637142/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-2640440-3466248?s=books&v=glance&n=283155), by Carl Zimmer. Thanks, I’ll look for it. ---
**Author:** ![YellowTail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5ac83/32.png) [@YellowTail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YellowTail)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/87 "2006-01-30T22:24:25Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > What are you reading? What have you dumped lately? Anything knock your socks off? I finally finished D.H. Lawrence’s _Women in Love_. Ugh, it was awful. It took me most of a year of dropping and resuming it. Then I read John Fowles’ _The Collector_. I liked it but the ending got me down. That bastard Ferdinand! I’m currently reading “Rumpole’s Return,” a long short story. It’s the last in my Rumpole omnibus so I’ll have to get the next one, if it’s still in print. Then I’m eagerly looking forward to _In the Belly of the Beast_ by Jack Henry Abbott. I think it was recommended to me on these boards. Plus my texts for the World History II class I’m taking and as many interesting magazine articles I can get hold of. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/88 "2006-01-30T23:28:11Z")
I’m reading _A Feast for Crows_ by George R. R. Martin. I recently finished the others in the series and _Love My Rifle More Than You_ by Kayla Williams. Next on my list is _Quicksilver_ by Neal Stephenson. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/89 "2006-01-31T03:06:46Z")
I just finished skimming Hungry Planet: what the world eats, by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. It’s a book made up of profiles of families in 24 different countries, including a photo of each family surrounded by one week’s worth of food. The text is fascinating. The kids and I enjoyed examining the pictures, looking at the clothing and homes of these people, and reading the statistics for each country, such as meat consumption per person per year, number of McDonald’s restaurants, life expectancy, etc. I’m planning to go back now and read it more carefully. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/90 "2006-01-31T03:16:50Z")
Just Finished: _A History of the World in 6 Glasses_ by Tom Standage. A wide-ranging, fact-filled, but light and highly palatable discourse on six beverages, their origins in antiquity, and their role in world culture, commerce, and civilization. In order, they are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. _Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man_, by Mick LaSalle. A survey of some of the most daring and dynamic periods in American moviemaking, the early Depression years, specifically their leading men their significance as stand-ins for Everyman. Recommended by a Doper, whose name, I’m sorry to say, I’ve forgotten. Whoever you are, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/91 "2006-01-31T03:26:48Z")
I just finished _Mildred Pierce_, and am planning to reread it before I give it back. It was great, and made me want to look for a book about local history. I’m torn about what my next book will be – a friend just loaned me a trashy chick lit revenge yarn (whose name escapes me), but I’ve also uncovered my book about dust, which I’d started a while back and then misplaced. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/92 "2006-01-31T04:01:25Z")
> [@Campion](#): > > . . . but I’ve also uncovered my book about dust, which I’d started a while back and then misplaced. 🙂 There’s a joke in there somewhere. (It was gathering dust is way too easy.) Someone wrote a book about dust? Kewl. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/93 "2006-01-31T06:17:33Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > 🙂 There’s a joke in there somewhere. (It was gathering dust is way too easy.) > > Someone wrote a book about dust? Kewl. Actually, it got trapped under a collection of other books. Ever find that reading your layers of books is like reading tree rings? (“Yes, that was from my Obscure Poets phase. I remember that came right after my I Can Too Learn Science, So There phase and right after my Books I Should Have Read Before phase.”) Yes, it’s called \*[The Secret Life of Dust\*](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471426350/qid=1138688177/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2942910-4342215?n=507846&s=books&v=glance). I didn’t know dust had lives, or that they had to work so hard to keep them secret. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/94 "2006-02-01T23:19:58Z")
\*\*The Brontës \*\* by Juliet Barker \*\*Head of State: Australia, the Republic and the Dismissal \*\* by David Smith ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/95 "2006-02-01T23:40:18Z")
Aside from the many books I read in my graduate studies, I have started working on the Honor Harrington series. I was inspired to read some space opera because of my d20 Star\*Drive campaign, and Honor Harrington kept coming up on these boards. At first I was worried, because the blurb I read said she had an empathic cat, which to me translates to “Warning! This book was written for 14-year-old girls.” But the one volume I’ve gotten through so far, [On Basilisk Station](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416509372/sr=1-2/qid=1138836906/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-6013564-3246246?%5Fencoding=UTF8), was simply a ripping yarn of space navy adventure while still being hard science fiction at the core. Possibly I’ll try this [David Feintuch](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446600962/qid=1138837093/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-6013564-3246246?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) later, but there seem to be plenty of these Harrington books to keep me going for a while. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/96 "2006-02-01T23:54:13Z")
Just read _Kushiel’s Chosen_ and _Kushiel’s Avatar_, by Jacqueline Carey. I read the first one, so I thought I’d finish the trilogy. It’s Late Medieval alternate history about a country that I think is France. The main character is a masochistic courtesan/spy/linguist. The story’s interesting, but all the sex is kind of boring. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/97 "2006-02-02T23:59:42Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > 🙂 There’s a joke in there somewhere. (It was gathering dust is way too easy.) > > Someone wrote a book about dust? Kewl. I read that book a couple years ago. It’s actually quite interesting and far more informative than you’d guess. The author discusses “dust” of many varieties: the interstellar dust that coalesced to form stars and planets, microbial dust, airborne man-made pollutants, terrestrial naturally-occuring particles, smoke, household dust. . . . ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/98 "2006-02-03T00:46:44Z")
I finished Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan. I was surprised to really enjoy it despite its decidedly violent tone. It’s sort of cyberpunk crossed with noir detective. I’m looking forward to reading the sequels. The idea of stored minds living in sequential “sleeves” (cloned bodies) in order to gain immortality is a popular theme right now, but each author explores the vast implications differently. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/99 "2006-02-03T02:55:39Z")
> [@Lissla Lissar](#): > > Just read _Kushiel’s Chosen_ and _Kushiel’s Avatar_, by Jacqueline Carey. I read the first one, so I thought I’d finish the trilogy. It’s Late Medieval alternate history about a country that I think is France. The main character is a masochistic courtesan/spy/linguist. The story’s interesting, but all the sex is kind of boring. Yea, it is set in a medieval france. The trilogy is very good, and theres a second coming out this/next year, set in Imriel’s point of view. As far as the sex, it is kind of boring. There isnt as much as in some other books I have read, but it is still a little much for my taste. I am currently reading: **Bread Givers** by Anzia Yezierska, **The Book of Splendor** by Frances Sherwood, and a book of essays about Hamlet. The first two are for my Judaism class, and the second for English. I really miss reading for fun. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868/100 "2006-02-03T03:07:48Z")
I’m finally reading The Onion Girl, by Charles de Lint. Over several years I’ve been reading the Newford novels and stories in sequence, but have stalled for the last couple of years because I’ve dreaded reading this sad story of Jilly. But Charles keeps putting out new work, and I won’t let myself read the newer Newford work unless I keep to the sequence. It would be nice to be caught up with the folk in Newford before Widdershins is published this spring. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-everyone-reading/341868.md?page=6)