i said: "They've got Fly and Moth together in one
book."
mark said: So how does this fit into your plan of one book
per author? Do you get to read both, since they're between
the same covers or must you set it aside after reading
Fly?
********** Before I found the rara-avis list, I found books
to read by simply wandering up and down the aisles of the
local bookstore and looking at the front cover and if it
caught my eye, the blurb on the back cover. Mostly I would
haunt the science fiction and mystery sections, but I'm not
shy about reading fiction outside these genres or
non-fiction. The bottom line is that finding a good author
was a hit- or-miss operation. So when I found someone I
liked, I bought every book they wrote and pretty much worked
my way thru them. I did that with James Ellroy, Michael
Connelly, Martin Cruz Smith, and quite a few others.
But the rara-avis list has changed that. The exposure to new
authors has been hot and heavy. Although I have whined a bit
about having some tried-and-true authors' books on the shelf
waiting on me, the decision to hit a bunch of new authors has
been totally satisfying. I think that the di- verse sampling
that it gives me serves to enrich each new one I read.
So, in answer to your question, I will probably not have a
problem with reading the first Sallis and waiting for a while
to read the next. I believe that I will take a break after
this twenty and read some authors I'm already ac- quainted
with, such as Willeford's _Cockfighter_, Gores
_Dead Man_, Charles Williams's _Dead Calm_, Westlake's _The
Ax_, J.D. MacDonald's _The Executioners_, Faulkner's _Sanc-
tuary_ or _Light in August_, McCarthy's _Child of God_
or
_Suttree_, and the Connelly and Pelecanos novels that I've
mentioned in an earlier post. Then I think I'll go back and
see about knocking off another 20 new authors.
miker
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