Which brings me to my next question? Has anyone read his
latest, "Always
Outnumbered, Always Outgunned"? The New York Times Book
Review evidently
has the first chapter online. I don't have the exact URL, but
it's a few
issues (2?) back. You have to be a member but the price is
right (it's
free).
Oh, and my last message crisscrossed the digest, so my
previous comments
are actually replying to the previous one (#104), not #105,
so please,
everyone, don't take my comments the wrong way. I'm not
saying The Maltese
Falcon is not worth reading, re-reading or even having
tatooed on your
stomach. And the reading list IS a good idea. I was just
saying I wouldn't
personally be re-reading all of them.
Oh, and one more Falcon-type note: a few years ago (10
already!) North
Point Press put out a really fun edition of The Maltese
Falcon, complete
with period photographs. If you can nab a copy, it's worth
checking out. I
think it was done in both hardcover and trade paperback. It
added a real
sense of place to the reading. Supposedly, someone put out a
similiar
version for The Big Sleep.
Oh, and Frank, bienvenue, and it's nice to see someone else
who has a
complaint about overly-long books. Seems publishers want 350+
pages these
days, resulting in some pretty padded, overblown books. And
these are the
books that seem to get into the newstands and drugstore
racks. Lately,
several highly-touted books I've read just seem so bloated.
It's
interesting to note that most of my favorite crime novels are
relatively
short (150-250 pages). Has anyone ever read a really good
hardboiled novel
that went on for more than, say, 300 or so pages?
Kevin Smith
Web Guy for The Thrilling Detective Web Site
For info, mailto:kvnsmith@total.net
"You wanna talk to me, go ahead and talk"
Bob Dylan, via Sam Spade
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