>>(badly needed snip)
>>
>>>>Glad you liked it. I suppose my next Littell recommendation would be The Company. Pretty much his magnum opus
>>>>
>>>>http://www.amazon.com/Company-Novel-CIA-Robert-Littell/dp/0142002623
>>
>>I am back to the classics. Graham Greene and Raymond Chandler. And Lorrie Moore just for fun. You can tell from her writing that she would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
>
>Funny you should say that. i just picked up the 6 Charlie Chan books by Earl Derr Biggers. I also have all the Fu Manchu stories by Sax Rohmer. I haven't read them yet. I think I'll save them for when I retire. Same with Ngaio Marsh, I've been buying (and not reading) her stuff at used book stores for years, and I think I now have everything. Naturally, they're now re-publishing all her stuff in three story volumes.
>
>I tried reading Mickey Spillane, but I find I just don't much care for his books. It's the same thing over and over again and I get really bored with it.
>
>The old classic stuff can be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to a lot of good reading some day when I finally decide I'm done with commuting.

Funny you should say that. Now that I spend an hour and a half a day commuting on the train I am catching up on my reading backlog. I cancelled both my newspaper subscriptions and it's all books now. Some tech stuff (.NET) but mostly fiction or popular nonfiction like "Too Big To Fail."

We seem to have very different tastes in books, which is fine. Ian Rankin would be an exception. Richard Price might be another. And Richard Russo. OK, I'll shut up ;-)

Now I am laughing, thinking of the movie version of Russo's "Nobody's Fool." Paul Newman plays a chronic screwup called Sully, a good man who never seems to do what's good for him. (I can relate). His best friend is named Rub. Yes, Rub, not Rob. My favorite scene is when Sully gets arrested for hitting a cop and misses out on cashing in on his daily "fool's bet." He keeps picking 1-2-3 in the lottery and it hits when he's in jail.