What BOOK are you reading right now?

Did success spoil Rock Hunter? It's hard to get motivated when you've sold millions of books.

I'll start tonight. But Merry's making me wary.

Oh, don't let me do that. As a general rule, I really admire Elmore Leonard's work. Even the early Westerns. He was just off his usual standards on this one, in my opnion.

Hmmm. Me, too.

I know what you mean Merry. At one time he could do no wrong. I loved everything he wrote. It must be hard to churn out a couple a year and not get stale.
John D McDonald had that problem.

At some point, someone posted on this thread about not reading novels.

I actually started studying English because I found few novels I liked well enough to finish. I prefer history to fiction.

Here is an article on the latest dust up from the publishing world and a book that talks about the death of the novel . . .http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/03/09/reality_hunger?source=newsletter

I don't immediately have a link but there was a recent article in the guardian (I think) about writers' rules on writing, starting with a goodly long quote by Elmore Leonard (who I also used to like but haven't read in years.) Very useful/entertaining article.

This is reminding me of another author I like who wrote many works under several pen names.
First I'll look for that article link. Next I'll try to remember the other writer. Started with a W, I think. Unfortunate, instead of the guy's name, Westbrook Pegler comes to mind and that's just wrong.

OK, found the article, which was in two parts.
I must say, I loved it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-two

Now to remember this other guy.

And the guy I'm remember liking the books of, Donald Westlake. Haven't read him in a while but remember liking several. Here's the obit -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/books/02westlake.html

Ordinarily, I wouldn't connect to such abusers of drugs but the main three characters (Converse, Hicks, and Marge) were quite likable despite their obvious personality flaws that I ended up really liking the book a lot. I loved Robert Stones sense of humor throughout the book.

And I appreciated the ambiguous yet loving connection the three main characters held between each other.

Hey tsar-man. Dog Soldiers was made into a great movie, though they changed the title to Who'll Stop The Rain. Have you seen it?

I remember really liking that movie, but not the details. I'm sure I liked Nolte and Weld.

I was unaware of the movie though I must admit I hate the title now I'm aware of its existence.

in any case, it's a wonderful movie based on a great book

I just reserved a copy from the NYPL. It better be good panzade!

Dude. Nick Nolte gives the performance of his life...you'll be shedding tears at the end

Panzade, I just put it in my Netflix queue.

They stole the title from CCR...

One Fifth Avenue

great reading if you can't get to sleep
it'll knock you out in a paragraph or two

Kara! your avatar looks soooo familiar...

same area?