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dxmachinaUpdate on my reading, because it's been awhile.
Finished Brittle Innings the day before I left for Maine. I really do like this book a lot. Of course, once you find out the big secret, you know that things can't possibly end well, and they don't, but it didn't end as I expected, and that was good. Definitely on my will-be-reread-sometime-in-the-future list. It's also on my keep-your-eyes-peeled-for-a-decent-copy-at-the-used-bookstore list.
Brought a bunch of books with me to Maine, mostly potential rereads - a couple of Cook's Garrett novels, and a Sharpe book, plus The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land, which I bought a long time ago, but never got to. Suela raves about it all the time, and I happened across it as I was packing, so I chucked it into my bag. It's very funny. It's not a novel, but rather a fake travel encyclopedia that satirizes the conventions of bad (and a few good) fantasy novels, so you don't have to read it cover to cover, which I didn't. I just skipped around, reading entries and chuckling. It's fun and fluffy, perfect for days when you've got an hour or so to kill here and there.
It turned out that I needn't have brought any books at all, because the cabin had a mini-library squirreled away in the room MakaiDiver was using, which I didn't realize was there until after she took off and I started using the room to change clothes in. Fairly complete sets of Hammett and Chandler novels, along with sets by a couple of other mystery authors, plus a bunch of miscellaneous novels left behind by previous vacationers. I've never read any Hammett, so I started The Thin Man and grabbed The Long Goodbye for the road. I'm liking The Thin Man so far, although in my mind I keep comparing Nick to Archie Goodwin (and to Garrett, too, but that stands to reason with Garrett, because he's pretty much based on Archie). They are all written similarly. Archie and Nick are sort of like evil twins. Their voices are pretty similar. Nick seems to be sort of what Archie would become if he ever actually married Lily Rowan. Except for the whole drinking every waking minute of the day thing. It's amazing to me how much alcohol Nick drinks. I mean I've seen the movie (although not in a long while), and I even remember the TV show, but the fact that Nick wakes up in the middle of the night, and immediately has Nora fix him a scotch and soda to drink in bed? That's just wrong.
Finished Brittle Innings the day before I left for Maine. I really do like this book a lot. Of course, once you find out the big secret, you know that things can't possibly end well, and they don't, but it didn't end as I expected, and that was good. Definitely on my will-be-reread-sometime-in-the-future list. It's also on my keep-your-eyes-peeled-for-a-decent-copy-at-the-used-bookstore list.
Brought a bunch of books with me to Maine, mostly potential rereads - a couple of Cook's Garrett novels, and a Sharpe book, plus The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land, which I bought a long time ago, but never got to. Suela raves about it all the time, and I happened across it as I was packing, so I chucked it into my bag. It's very funny. It's not a novel, but rather a fake travel encyclopedia that satirizes the conventions of bad (and a few good) fantasy novels, so you don't have to read it cover to cover, which I didn't. I just skipped around, reading entries and chuckling. It's fun and fluffy, perfect for days when you've got an hour or so to kill here and there.
It turned out that I needn't have brought any books at all, because the cabin had a mini-library squirreled away in the room MakaiDiver was using, which I didn't realize was there until after she took off and I started using the room to change clothes in. Fairly complete sets of Hammett and Chandler novels, along with sets by a couple of other mystery authors, plus a bunch of miscellaneous novels left behind by previous vacationers. I've never read any Hammett, so I started The Thin Man and grabbed The Long Goodbye for the road. I'm liking The Thin Man so far, although in my mind I keep comparing Nick to Archie Goodwin (and to Garrett, too, but that stands to reason with Garrett, because he's pretty much based on Archie). They are all written similarly. Archie and Nick are sort of like evil twins. Their voices are pretty similar. Nick seems to be sort of what Archie would become if he ever actually married Lily Rowan. Except for the whole drinking every waking minute of the day thing. It's amazing to me how much alcohol Nick drinks. I mean I've seen the movie (although not in a long while), and I even remember the TV show, but the fact that Nick wakes up in the middle of the night, and immediately has Nora fix him a scotch and soda to drink in bed? That's just wrong.
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Date: 2003-10-06 09:24 am (UTC)manomanoman, great minds work alike. I've thought that myself, except that personally, *I* always wanted to marry Archie.
Nick and Nora Charles - have you read any of Lillian Hellman's memoirs? "Pentimento" and "Unfinished Woman", in particular? ("Scoundrel Time" is a whole 'nother cup of coffee - HUAC days.) She talks extensively about Hammett and yes, I know a lot of people debunk and say her stuff is mythologised and whatnot, but if anyone had anything to say about Hammett, it would be Hellman. And she talks about "Thin Man", among others.
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Date: 2003-10-06 10:49 am (UTC)I haven't read any of the memoirs. Never saw the Fonda-Robards movie, either. I read up on Hammett a little bit back in the seventies when the TV movie of The Dain Curse came out, but not a lot.
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Date: 2003-10-06 10:16 am (UTC)Or, more appropriately, can I borrow it at some point in time? I've been hearing about it for ages & never been able to lay hands on an actual copy...
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Date: 2003-10-06 10:46 am (UTC)