Anyone read Ian Rankin? His Inspector Rebus novels, set in Edinburgh are dark, droll and have the character development many have mentioned. He did an author breakfast for our store with Robert B Parker (The Spenser series) and Linda Fairstein (who writes about a female sex crimes prosecutor in NYC.) He was quite wicked about the joys of getting up at 6 am to take the train for weak coffee and soggy croissants but all was forgiven when we offered him an Irn Bru for his troubles.

Other authors I love: Reginald Hill (Dalziel and Pascoe procedurals set in Yorkshire.) The earlier ones are more concise and funny and the series must be read in order to make sense. Deborah Crombie, Caroline Graham, Jill McGown, some of Val McDermid's books: all set in the UK. Peter Robinson, Canadian writer with another Yorkshire Inspector. And the late, much lamented Sarah Caudwell: Thus Was Adonis Murdered never fails to make me laugh.

There are more and this is why my house was always too messy for company.

The romance readers may be interested to learn that The Washington Post will publish its first Romance Roundup review tomorrow in its Sunday book supplement, according to a writing list I'm on. It's written by Pamela Regis, professor of English, McDaniel College, author of A Natural History of the Romance Novel. The Book World editors have apparently said they're interested in readers' response to the idea of reviewing romance novels.

Thanks, Kristin, but I'll get it from the library.

I love Rankin too, and saw him speak a bit ago. He was hysterically funny.

Rankin totally rocks.

I've got addicted to the Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery magaines. You get a superb scattering of short stories, and it's a brilliant way to discover new writers.

I love Reginald Hill too, Susan! Ian Rankin on the other hand I think is rather overrated.

Just finished reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for the third or fourth time. I find it less fun than Snow Crash and less impressive than Cryptonomicon/Quicksilver but I think I might like it better than any of them. Probably because I empathize best, in novels, with young girls - rather strange, considering I'm a 20-year-old male.

The nanotechnology ideas explored in this book are way cool, too. More interesting than his other more normal computer-focused books, I think.

Ian Rankin has had me drinking sweet milky tea at every reasonable opportunity since reading The Hanging Garden. That's very powerful work.

In fact, I'm going to brew a cuppa right now.

I think a couple of my McDermid's have come into the library this week. Way too much reading to do.

Just finished reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for the third or fourth time. I find it less fun than Snow Crash and less impressive than Cryptonomicon/Quicksilver but I think I might like it better than any of them.

I know I like The Diamond Age as Stephenson's best. At least, it's the only one I re-read on a regular basis. I think its characters feel the most human.

(wonders how NC and Plei knew he wanted to mention that he'd just finished Quicksilver)

I have trouble rating books comparatively, as those I haven't read recently are hard for me to remember concretely. I liked The Diamond Age, but it was verging on the edge of ridiculousness for me near the end.

I was shocked to find that I wasn't nearly as impatient with the historical world-building in Quicksilver as I was with that in Cryptonomicon. I guess the Enlightenment is more fun that World War II for me. Need to go put in an order for The Confusion.

I'm currently reading Pattern Recognition, my first Gibson.

As I recently expressed elsewhere, books cost too much.

Yeah... I just finished reading O Jerusalem the other day for the third time or so... It's one of my faves in the Russell/Holmes series, my least favourite being A Letter of Mary, my most being Monstrous Regiment of Women. If anyone likes cosy mysteries the Aunt Dimity series by (I think) Nancy Atherton is good... entertaining and fun for an afternoon on the patio or in front of a fire (depending on the season). I also just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and was totally blown away by it... so different from her earlier stuff (which was also good), but one of those books whose characters have stayed with me.