Hi I'm another Duane who is 27 and who reads hard-boiled
literature, but you can simply call me Ziggy.
Anyway, I started with the Hardy Boys in 3rd grade and then
fell into the fantasy side of literature. Then I discovered
the comic books "Hellblazer" and then "Sandman" and then one
day
(I think I was just past my 14th birthday) an older gentleman
watching me devour a Hellblazer asked me if they gave me
nightmares. I told him no and he told me to try reading Jim
Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me" and it did give me
nightmares and I was quickly hooked on noirish plup. Went
through everything I could find on Thompson, then Cornell
Woolrich, and then I found James Cain and he devoured me.
Stylistic interest led to Hemingway and then I discovered
Hammett who just took the cake away from Poppa. After reading
through everything my grubby mitts could grime of Hammett, I
found Chandler. I ended up making my way through the Ripleys
and then found Ellroy, then Philip Kerr's
"Berlin Noir" and I became interested in people rewriting
history and jumped into Don Dilillo whose blurb on the back
of John Banville's The Book of Evidence lead me to doing my
thesis on Banville and then my interest in all things Irish
took hold and I read Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy (and
everything else he has written) and now I'm just floating in
renaissance literature (primarily drama, but the prose is
kindof kooky and cool, but the tragedies are so freaking
bloody and violent, you might just think they're
hard-boiled).
So that's my progression, some old guy suggests a book to
give me nightmares when I'm youngand I end up reading
renaissance drama, who'd thunk it.
Yah-yah-yah, Ziggy Nix
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