>>>Can't say I've ever been much for spy thrillers, but maybe I'll take a shot at one. I like a good mystery and I like a good comedy and when the two are mixed, I'm a happy camper.
>>>
>>>Of course, then there is Stephenson. BTW, I assume you read Anathem? I can't imagine where that guy's head is at, but I hope he keeps it there.
>>
>>Yeah, did read Anathem. I'm still not sure how I feel about it (that said, I'm saying in comparison to his other stuff, not writing by ordinary mortals.)
>>
>>Get into Gibson's Spook Country yet ?
>
>Have it. Haven't read it yet.
>
>>
>>Oh and if you want something delightfully weird, Thomas Pynchon is back, for crying out Lot49. He's got a 60s detective yarn called Inherent Vice that for some reason reminds me of The Big Lebowski. (at least the protagonist is Jeff Bridges in my head )
>
>Have it. haven't read it yet. After Gravity's Rainbow, V, Crying of Lot 49, and Vineland, and Mason & Dixon (in that order), I just don't know if I can handle another one. Although, I have to admit that even though I have no idea what Gravity's Rainbow is really all about (and I actually read it twice), I sure enjoyed every single phrase, line and image in the book. Well, maybe there was an image or two that I didn't enjoy so much. But Byron was my hero for a long time. In fact, I imagine he's still out there somewhere leading the grid a merry chase.
>
>And by God man, read The Sot Weed Factor (John Barth). Unless you already have, of course, in which case, read it again.
>
>>
>>In the genre of spy with humor, how about some Eric Ambler - Dirty Story (1967)
>>
>>And of course my guy - Ross Thomas
>>
>>The Eighth Dwarf
>>Missionary Stew
>>The Fools in Town are on Our Side
>>Chinaman's Chance
>>Out on the Rim
>>and absolutely ever other word he ever wrote both under his own name and as Oliver Bleek.
>>
>>And the original Alan Furst - before he got really serious in period spy stuff.
>>
>>Your Day in the Barrel won the Edgar in 77 or so and was the impetus that finally got me kick started in writing.
>>
>>All his other stuff isn't funny but is very very good.
>>
>>And Phillip Kerr with the adventures of a Berlin cop from about 1929 - 1950
>>
>>http://www.amazon.com/Berlin-Noir-Violets-Criminal-Requiem/dp/0140231706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267667098&sr=1-1
>
>I've picked up and put down the Kerr books many times in the bookstore. Maybe I'll actually buy a couple and see. I'll check out the others too.

I was either doing a lot of drugs when I was reading Pynchon or he made me feel like I was. (probably a mixture of both )
Completely spacing on Gravity's Rainbow but remember Lot 49 and, I think, V.

But I do remember I was reading them contemporaneously with the Illuminatus Trilogy so I think somewhere they are all munged together. Robert Anton Wilson actually made sense to me at one point so you get the idea. ( btw his Historical Illuminatus Chronicles trilogycould have been his best work if he could have stayed on - or even hovering over - the rails long enough to finish it as the pentology he imagined )

I always swore I would go back and read all of them straight someday, but now that that is possible I may find they'll slip in priority in the queue to the point of my senility setting in and then it's just going to be like the first time.

I ran across the Sot Weed Factor and Gile Goat Boy right out of college and life was getting pretty weird right them so i think I just didn't read them though they were on my shelf for so long I think maybe I thought I did. ( kind of like to this day I cannot actually remember where I was for about three months in 1970.)

I just ordered Sot Weed Factor from the library so it may all come back to me.

I have to do something to stay busy while waiting for George RR Martin.