[quote=“korano, post:220, topic:1204”]Well, it seems as though my extremely short attention span has gotten the best of e and I’ve given up on Don Quixote. Though I’ve picked up something a little more up my alley with Mike Hammer novels vol.2 that includes Mickey Spillane’s One Lonely Night, The Big Kill, and Kiss Me Deadly.
Naturally starting with One Lonely Night. I really enjoy Spillane’s extremely hard boiled style. And the brutal, short fused, heavy handed Mike Hammer’s overall cynicism and rage makes for very interesting reading. The plot is getting a little intricate as their are no less that 3 mystery plots going on simultaneously.
I like Spillane’s storytelling style. Read from the first person of Hammer. He doesn’t deal with the more subtle mysteries that Philip Marlowe did. Rather, he’s after the Communist party or Political blackmailer’s. And the tactics employed by the aptly named Mike Hammer are similarly less subtle than those of Marlowe. As he takes obscene pleasure in shooting communists in the face, beating rousty bar patrons, or brutalizing information from people. My kind of reading![/quote]
Oh hell yeah!
ONE LONELY NIGHT is one of the best hard-boiled tales ever slammed down on paper!
I like Spillane a lot.
Hellfire arrived yesterday, A biography of Jerry Lee Lewis (with pics), by Nick Tosches. Looks good. “They said, “Well, now, you change your act to a gittar and you might could make it.” I said “You can take your gittar and ram it up your ass.”” ;D
Mainly the manual of the digital TV box I bought
It’s all working now, so it seems, but I still have to learn a lot about all possibilities
I’ve got more than seventy networks now, French (an awful lot), Italian (Rai 1/2/3), Spanish (1), Arabic (2)
I’ve got only two German language networks left, which is a good indication of how unpopular German has become. Companies are complaining that they can’t find employees who speak German. Okay, most Germans speak English, but it’s always an advantage if you can surprise you business partner with some conversation in his native tongue. And Germany is (along with France) still the most important business partner for most Belgian companies. And French is getting less popular too …
[quote=“Reverend Danite, post:225, topic:1204”]Hellfire arrived yesterday, A biography of Jerry Lee Lewis (with pics), by Nick Tosches. Looks good. “They said, “Well, now, you change your act to a gittar and you might could make it.” I said “You can take your gittar and ram it up your ass.”” ;D[/quote]
Reminds me of a line from the JLL biopic, Great Balls of Fire, where he says something like “If’n I’m goin’ to Hell, I’m going playin’ the peeyanna!” ;D
Great Balls of Fire - weird film, interesting, enjoyable - but although there’s a bit on the disc with the Killer himself saying how he endorses it, I got the feeling they played up the country bumpkin bit too much. At times I thought Quaid made him out to be a half-witted idiot. Sure, he made some strange decisions in his life, but the man’s touched with genius. Strange portrayal?
They most likely did the opposite with the “country bumpkin bit” and gave him the Hollywood treatment. Spending a lot of my growing up time in West Virginia and Kentucky, and being a “hillbilly” (according to I…I!), I can tell you that it’s a whole different world down there, even in the 70’s when I was growing up. Like time sort of stands still. A lot of people would say “backwards”. That’s why he was so shocking. Elvis was a choir boy, he was a bad boy!
Yeah, I can only imagine. We only have Norfolk (where tigger lives) where they (allegedly) have six fingers and webbed toes. I’m looking forward to reading Hellfire, cos there won’t be the hollywood gloss in this.
Jerry Lee, as cool as his music and his general public personae might have been, was definitely a “hick”. Now, some folks might think I am dissing the Killer by calling him a “hick”, but I am not. It is like Devil Bunny said…it is a different world in the part of the South where Jerry Lee hailed from.
I grew up with lots of “country folks” from Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Eastern Texas—and even the highly intelligent among them still had a lot of “hillbilly” or “country bumpkin” aspects to their personality. So, I think Devil Bunny is right. Hollywood probably glossed over Jerry Lee’s country bumpkin aspects—he just may have been more of a bumpkin than you might expect, Reverend!
Jerry Lee was a genius; but, I think his genius was in his fingers and his soul…if you know what I mean.
Reading two. Dexter In The Dark- Jeff Lindsay
Great read, although I’ve misplaced the book and can’t find it! Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follett
Christmas present from my boss. Just started it. So far so good.
[quote=“Devil Bunny, post:236, topic:1204”]Reading two. Dexter In The Dark- Jeff Lindsay
Great read, although I’ve misplaced the book and can’t find it! Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follett
Christmas present from my boss. Just started it. So far so good. :)[/quote]
DB, if you enjoy Pillars of the Earth then next on your list might be Follett’s World Without End. Excellent stuff.
I have just started reading Elmore Leonard’s first novel, The Bounty Hunters. It’s very fast paced, and quite modern, which is surprising as it was first published in 1953.
That is a fairly good novel. Leonard is one of my favorite writers, especially when he is working in the Western genre. I’ve never read a Western by Leonard that I didn’t like.
Finished One Lonely Night. Very good read. But the hatred, violence, and dread that pulses through virtually every word Spillane writes can ware a guy thin. So I’ve started Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely
