Simon ,'Out Of Gas'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
This is prob'ly the place to ask about John Barth - I'm loving The Floating Opera , so where should I go from here.
I'm not a huge David Mitchell fan, tbh - his first 2 books are shameless Murakami knock-offs, and although the concept of Cloud Atlas is great, he doesn't quite have the chops to pull it off; each section is a pastiche of a different form, and they all feel pastichey.
This is prob'ly the place to ask about John Barth - I'm loving The Floating Opera , so where should I go from here.
The Floating Opera is one of his earliest, I think. So if you're liking that you might want to march through him chronologically. I think the consensus pick for his best book might be The Sotweed Factor. I haven't read it, but recall my friend reading it in college and loving it - thought it was very funny. I expect Giles Goat Boy is a bit dated anymore. I loved his short stories in Lost In The Funhouse.
From his later books, I think Chimera was well received, as was Tidwater Tales.
Both reflect his ever-deepening fascination with storytelling itself, particularly the myth of Scheherezade.
Letters is very meta, bringing in characters from various of his books. That would probably be better after you'd read more of him.
Here's the John Barth Information Center - which has a thoughtful, brief critical bibliography.
Having only seen the movie, I was surprised at how readable The Maltese Falcon was. I haven't gotten on the whole noir-lit thing, but it was a fun read.
Chandler's better.
I thought this crowd might want to make their opinions known in the Locus All-time Fantasy Story Poll.
Thanks for the link, Hec. I too didn't read Hammett till after I'd seen movies made of his work, and like most awkward post-adolescent dummkopfs I was vaguely convinced that because it was "old" it would not be readable. Rather, I find that Hammett's got that great nasty verve you find in 1910s gossip columns and muckraking reporters -- except more cynical.
I think Chandler is glorious, but occasionally talking out of his glorious hindparts; but Hammett writes like a man who has been offered money to do murder (because he is one).
This is true. The words are so pretty, coming out of his ass, and um, that didn't sound right. Hammett is more grounded in reality, but I like Chandler's use of language and find it sexy(Although as a blonde, maybe I should be offended...I'm not sure why I'm not. Maybe I secretly want to be poison.)
The Maltese Falcon is an absolutely amazing book for narrative theory geeks, because the entire story is told from Sam Spade's point of view (we never see anything Sam doesn't see) and yet we never find out a single thing that Sam is thinking, it has no interiority whatsoever.
NB it's possible I'm actually thinking of a different book, in which case I blushingly retract the above.
I think you're right. No need to blush, Angus.