# Where are you and what are you doing -- in the book you're reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161 "2013-05-12T16:53:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/21 "2013-05-13T03:28:13Z")
I’m in the Amazon in the late 1860s. Ten thousand American southerners have just moved into the lower Amazon in an attempt to re-create a slave-owning society based on rubber plantations but most have given up and moved back after encountering the harsh living and working conditions there. And this is **non** -fiction. _1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created_ by Charles C. Mann ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/22 "2013-05-13T03:32:26Z")
In a factory-turned-laboratory in the science quarter, having a VERY confusing talk with a Garuda. (Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/23 "2013-05-13T03:44:19Z")
I’m at a wedding reception, held in the cafeteria of a high school in West Virginia. Suddenly there is a great flash of light, and a roll of thunder. After that, things start to get strange. 1632, by Eric Flint ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/24 "2013-05-13T05:46:08Z")
I’m in Stockholm, Sweden in an alternate universe where an Anglo-Germanic empire that discovered crosstime travel reigns supreme and I’m being told by the secret service agent of said empire to kill and pose as a double of a dictator in a third alternate universe. I’m on a highway in Oklahoma and I’m a truck driver talking to a just-released ex-convict. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/25 "2013-05-13T05:53:17Z")
I am visiting the US House of Representatives in 1989 and finding it amusing and appalling at the same time. Yes, it’s **Parliament of Whores** by PJ O’Rourke. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/26 "2013-05-13T06:13:01Z")
I’m lying in bed in the guest bedroom of an English country home, watching my manservant pack our bags, smug in the knowledge that out on the lawn a policeman is spending his night patrolling past my window because no-one bothered to tell him I’m not under arrest anymore. _The Code of the Woosters_ by P. G. Wodehouse ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/27 "2013-05-13T11:40:24Z")
I am nursing a badly shot up B-24 back from a bombing run on Nauru with no hydraulics and most of the crew seriously injured. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand Also, Eric Sevareid has just been recruited by Columbia to be a correspondent during the early days of World War II. The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism by Stanley Cloud, Lynne Olson And, the sheep have just been delivered to the lab, since our funding application for the macaques was lost and we needed to find another animal quickly to study idea diffusion (now we need to figure out what kinds of skills a sheep can be taught, and how to measure whether others in the flock as copying it). Bellwether by Connie Willis ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/28 "2013-05-13T11:56:10Z")
I’m viewing the madness of the Baltimore PD Homicide Unit as a fly on the wall. Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by the always amazing David Simon. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/29 "2013-05-13T12:08:02Z")
My name’s Marlowe. A wealthy elderly gent has hired me to deal with the mess his two wild daughters have created. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler ---
**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 13, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/30 "2013-05-13T12:34:55Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Put the title in a spoiler box if you think your post could be a spoiler. > > I’m in Iowa, in a library that was destroyed by a flood. I’m talking with a homeless woman who I’m hoping will help find my kidnapped son. > > NOS4A2 by Joe Hill I was just there, but then I drove my motorcycle over a covered bridge and now I’m a long way off. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/31 "2013-05-13T12:38:46Z")
I’m not a character in the book I’m reading, so nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/32 "2013-05-13T12:49:54Z")
It’s the late 4th Century and I’m a retired soldier, invalided out of the Legions due to a horrific axe wound, now a blacksmith in Colchester, who’s just about to go for a bath with his ex-commanding officer! Yes, for some reason I’ve ended up re-reading _The Skystone_ by **Jack Whyte** ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/33 "2013-05-13T12:53:09Z")
I’m growing up at Ferry Farm. (Biography of George Washington). ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/34 "2013-05-13T12:56:35Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > I’m not a character in the book I’m reading You’re doing it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/35 "2013-05-13T13:32:02Z")
I’m in a debtors’ prison, which is in an attic in New York City in the 1700’s. I’m lowering a shoe on a string to street level, into which passers by will (I hope) drop coins, with which I will pay for my food. Otherwise, I may starve to death because while felons are fed at the city’s expense, debtors are on their own. And this is non-fiction. _Story of America: Essays on Origins_, by Jill Lepore. ---
**Author:** ![Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weaver_of_Nightmares)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/36 "2013-05-13T15:44:04Z")
I’m in a courtroom in Madison County, along with my brother and fiancé, watching our father at work - he’s an attorney. We’re up at the coloureds’ balcony, despite being white ourselves. The sheriff is about to start his testimony. I’m not really sure what the case is about, I’m only eight, and no one has really told me what rape is. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/37 "2013-05-13T15:54:18Z")
I’m very confused and scared and alone. I have no idea who to trust, because the kids who have been tormenting me since I came to this school using a fake ID…well, now I think they may actually be like me - illegal children born to parents who already had two kids. I just sneaked out of this windowless boarding school to the woods surrounding it in the middle of the night to follow them and try to figure out what’s going on. But mostly I’m pissed off that someone (the other kids, maybe?) destroyed my secret garden last night. Among the Imposters, part of the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/38 "2013-05-13T18:41:18Z")
It is 1917 and America is about to join the war. I am a wealthy industrialist falling into an affair while my business is threatened by a German gentleman pissed off because my son got his girl. Dangerous Days by Mary Roberts Rinehart ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/39 "2013-05-13T18:56:48Z")
Well, I’m doing the orientation/PR tour thing at my old law firm in London, even though I should _obviously_ have stayed out in the countryside and worked out life plans with the gardener I fell in love with. 😉 The Undomestic Goddess, Sophie Kinsella ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161/40 "2013-05-13T19:08:22Z")
I’m a Jewish reporter/spy in 1938 Berlin working for the Soviet NKVD. Things are tense. _Dark Star_ by Alan Furst [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-in-the-book-youre-reading/658161.md?page=3)