what are you reading now?

[version]

@version i finished lady in the lake and high window recently.... honestly might skip the next one and go to long goodbye because i found a cheap copy recently since i havent been as in love with chandler as i hoped.... farewell my lovely def my favorite... the other three ive read have their qualities, but they feel a bit telegraphed reading one after the other.... the prose is great, and being in the head of a central character that is able to singularly capture the mood of a city and time period is worthwhile, but the form feels a bit constrained after reading 4 of these books, its easy for me to say this because of how they vary from Ellroy, which contains a lot more scale and variety of worlds and characters which i prefer more.... havve read through enough chandler and thompson to know that Ellroy remains the king of crime....

I prefer Hammett to Chandler. He's a bit rougher prose-wise, but Red Harvest really pulled me in in a way the two of Chandler's - Big Sleep, Farewell... - didn't. And yeah, Ellroy's better than both of them.

i heard about jean patrick manchette, he has many books put out by nyrb which have cool covers, i think im going to read some of his soon.....

Nada's a great one of Manchette's. I'd recommend that. It's about a ragtag group of left-wingers getting in over their heads kidnapping an American ambassador.

but right now i am going to read Cosmopolis, i also picked up End Zone recently, i think youve read one of them.

I've read both of them: loved Cosmopolis, was lukewarm on End Zone.

 

[kid charlemagne]

nada and this other one i saw at the store, the other had a raving quote from ellroy on the back which tempted me, i think i have a copy of red harvest, i'll have to start reading more of him too

 

[version]

nada and this other one i saw at the store, the other had a raving quote from ellroy on the back which tempted me, i think i have a copy of red harvest, i'll have to start reading more of him too

The other Manchette I've read's Ivory Pearl, was into that one too but it was a bit clunkier and he died before he could finish it. It stops part way through like Rene Daumal's book, Mount Analogue.