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>>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.
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>>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 )
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>>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.
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>>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.)
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>>I just ordered Sot Weed Factor from the library so it may all come back to me.
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>>I have to do something to stay busy while waiting for George RR Martin.
>
>On your recommendation I reserved "Berlin Game" at the library. When I got the email saying it was ready for pickup I at first thought they had a mixup in their records. It said your copy of "Game, Set and Match" is ready. Turns out it is an omnibus consisting of three books, the other two including the words set and match in their titles. Will let you know how I like them.
>
>Who did I tell I would tell them how I liked the new, non-Rebus Ian Rankin book? Alan, I think. The early returns were not good and I returned it after about 100 pages. It didn't exactly suck but it was not compelling enough to keep reading. The characters never seemed like more than sketches.

Never had Rankin on my top authors list, though I've enjoyed a couple of his.

Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London match comprise the first of the three trilogies. Since you like character based stuff I think you'll really enjoy these. Trust me when I tell you that the plot is very very well crafted over the nine books and there is nothing cardboard about the characters. You're in for a treat.

Next come Spy Hook, Spy Line, Spy Sinker then Faith, Hope and Charity.