And We're Off

My pal the Mighty Caveman convinced me to blog a year's worth of reading alongside him, so as an avid reader who wants to read even more steadily I said okay.

My tastes currently run towards hard-boiled stuff like the Hard Case Crime series, European crime fiction like Arnaldur Indridason and Asa Larsson, "hippie-fi" like Philip K. Dick and Samuel R. Delany, high fantasy, and a smattering of everything else including an occasional Western and a taste or two from the bestseller list.

Historically I have liked pulp novels, cyberpunk, golden age sci-fi, and people like Cornell Woolrich, Mickey Spillane, Robert Sheckley, Chester B. Himes, Roger Zelazny, Ed McBain, Elmore Leonard, and a lot more.

Right now I always seek out the new Michael Connelly and Walter Mosley novels.

The five best books I have read lately, and recommend to everyone, are THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Diaz, THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD by Kevin Brockmeier, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE by Jonathan Lethem, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY by Michael Chabon, and CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL by Glen David Gold.

So that's a bit of the flavor you'll find here, though I suspect I will later think of a lot more stuff I should have mentioned, probably a whole different list's worth. Stay tuned.