How would you have answered these questions?
What three books would you take to a desert island? (We did this last month but I changed my mind and you can too.)
What was the last book that really wowed you?
What are 2-3 of your favorite crime fiction series?
1) In Cold Blood, Daughter of Time, The Moonstone
2) I Am Legend
3) Van Der Valk series, Nicholas Freeling, Hoke Mosely series by Charles Willeford, and damn, I can't remember the third series. I was going to pick Martin Beck by Sjowal and Wahloo but someone picked it first.
Oddly enough, yesterday I went to the library and found a first edition of DAUGHTER OF TIME on sale for a $1.00. Wasn't even a library book but a donation. Weird, huh?
30 comments:
desert island - wilt by tom sharpe, Farewell my lovely by Chandler and The lord of the rings trilogy.
last book to really wow me - Die a little by you know who
FAVE CRIME SERIES - Rebus, Parker and Ken Bruen
I was at that panel. The question was fun and thought-provoking then, and it's the same now.
My first choice among series would be Bill James' Harpur & Iles novels, which I've discussed as part of your Forgotten Books. The novels are stagey, dark, funny, and beautifully written.
The last books that really wowed me were probably Ken Bruen's Priest and Adrian McKinty's Michael Forsythe novels.
And for a change of pace, David Hinton's translation of The Selected Poems of Po Chü-i, admirably suited to the solitude of a desert island.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
1: 1984, Tunnel In The Sky, The Stand
2: Owls Hoot In The Daytime: wowed me again after all these years
3: Rebus, Parker, and Perry Mason
desert island - (impractical me) Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake, Tales of the East selected by Henry William Weber, Sex Gang by "Paul Merchant"
desert island - (practical me)
first edition Gutenburg Bible, first edition Poe's Tammerlane,
first edition any Shakespeare. Of course they'd be well-protected as I look forward to the day I get off that damned island.
last book to really wow me - more often than not it's the last one I've read, in this case I just finished Joe Lansdale's Mad Dog Summer.
fave crime series - first ones to come to mind are McBain's 87th Precinct, Lansdale's Hap & Leonard, Crider's Dan Rhodes, Pronzini's Nameless, Queen's Queen, Carr's Fell, and McDonald's Archer. That's two or three, right? Oh, and Brown's Ed & Am Hunter, Lovesey's Peter Diamond, Hoch's Simon Ark and his Ben Snow, and....
Patti, how come we never met at Bouchercon? Where were you? Were you hiding? I saw Megan everywhere...
Desert island books:
Wuthering Heights
Moby Dick
Crime and Punishment
Wow factor:
Stewart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster and The Good Wife
Crime series:
Connelly's Harry Bosch, JA Jance's JP Beaumont, Vicki Lane's Elizabeth Goodweather
For a desert island: Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry; The Chill, by Ross Macdonald; Lincoln, by Gore Vidal.
Last book to really wow me: The Little Book, by Selden Edwards.
Favorite crime series: Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer novels; Edward Marston's Nicholas Bracewell books; Ian Rankin's John Rebus stories.
If I take any more time with this, I'll almost certainly change my mind on something, so it's best to send this off NOW.
Hell, I've already changed my mind and thought about getting Joe Gores D.K.A. Files novels in there somewhere.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
#1: THE GRIFTERS by Jim Thompson; CONTROLLED BURN by Scott Wolven; THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS by Ken Bruen
#2: PROVINCES OF NIGHT by William Gay
#3: The Jack Taylor series by Ken Bruen; The Brant & Roberts series by Ken Bruen; The Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley
What about taking I AM LEGEND to read on a desert island?
I love Stewart O'Nan. I assume you've read Speed Queen. I missed so many people I wanted to meet at Bouchercon. I should have worked the registrations desk longer. The only place I met people. Jack Taylor series was on my list. Oh, Perry Mason, good choice. Same for 87th Precinct and Lew Archer was on there too. I must read The Grifters. Loved the movie. I have a McKinty novel working its way up. I've read a few Dan Rhodes, which are as lovable as their writer. So many good books, so little time, which is why I'm sticking to my one book per author rule. You will too at 60.
I'd take it with my anywhere. It's the kind of book that makes you want to rush to your PC and start writing--or with a stick in the sand.
Desert Island:
Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps
The Lord of the Rings
Bible
Wowed me: The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow
Crime series:
Connelly's Bosch; Gardner's Cool and Lam; Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro
I wish some of you would name books I've already read so I didn't have so much reading to do. I've been meaning to read Winslow too. I remember a time I could keep up with it. Are there more books or less me?
Desert Island: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; The Sentinal Stars by Louis Charbonneau and Brat Farrer by Josephine Tey
Wowed by: Wrong Town by Matthew P. Mayo
Detective series: Erle Stanley Gardiner's Perry Mason; Peter Cheyney's Slim Callaghan; Alan Hunter's George Gently
Ray-More new titles and series! Apparently the titles are infinite.
Desert Island (supplementing the last set): COLLECTED WORKS Ambrose Bierce ("Alone: In Bad Company"); LOCAS Jaime Hernandez; EVERYBODY HAS SOMEBODY IN HEAVEN Avram Davidson
Last wow: Slightly qualified, but MONEY SHOT Christa Faust (also, bucking the BC POP CULTURE trend, THE FINAL SOLUTION Michael Chabon, also qualified [bad ending])
Favorite series (leaving aside such already-mentioned as Archer, Hap & Leonard, and Ark): Ron Goulart's Max Kearney; Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder; Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway (and...Warshaswski, McCone, Moses Wine, the Op...even such uneven series as John Ball's Virgil Tibbs or the likes of McGee, however better most of JDM's non-series novels might be).
Really, though, there are more books. The old ones don't go away.
Managed to not think of Dortmunder, even with the spur of a mention of Parker.
I've done this as a meme some time back in my blog. I suggested that I take at least Pat Hawk's pseudonyms catalogue on CD (provided I have a computer with a CD drive with me) and Al Hubin's bibliography of crime fiction. I might be sad after a while when I'd realize that I can't get to the books. The Black Lizard Book of Pulps might also come handy.
The little intellectual in me would take something by Walter Benjamin or Sontag's On Photography or Schivelbusch's history of train travelling or even something more difficult, like Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze-Guattari or Adorno/Horkheimer. I'd explain them when I'd come back from the island.
The Collected Works of Marx or if I can't have them all, the writings of young Marx. Ah, to read aloud passages from Gründrisse on a beach somewhere...
Also Baudelaire's My Naked Heart (or whatever it is in English), which I used to know by heart when I was a teenager.
But because I am what I am, I'm sure I'd find a thrift store on that island (which is of course deserted and left as such) and there would be a full run of Cleveland Westerns.
The book that last wowed me? I Am Legend.
Patti, forgot to say that I already posted a forgotten book entry.
Juri-after reading your choices my husband wants to meet you.
I'll post the link. Thanks.
Todd-got my fantasy book. Thanks for the rec.
Desert island:Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Stories by T.C. Boyle, The Speciality of the House by Stanley Ellin.
Wowed me:The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Fave Crime series:Harry Bosch(michael Connely), Ins. Rebus(Ian Rankin), Lew Archer(Ross MacDonald).
I've had Shadow of the Wind sitting on my TBR for years. Somehow I can't get by the first pages. I know the payoff is great but....
Specialty of the House. Can't remember ever being more amazed.
Shadow of the Wind is a fabulous book, at once a mystery and a surrealistic adventure. You really ought to pick it back up, Patti.
Cheers,
Jeff
I think the idea it is magical realism has put me off. I will try it again though.
This is fun!
Desert Island: something by Neal Stephenson, as it would take awhile to read, a Jane Austen compilation & I'm drawing a blank on 3rd.
Last books to wow me: The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny, A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Favorite crime series: Deborah Knott series by Margaret Maron, S.J. Rozan's series, Louise Penny's, Charlotte Macleod (all series, including those written as Alisa Craig)
Oh, boy I sure have been hearing great things about that Potato Peel Pie. Louise Penny is a real find.
The Shadow of the Wind blew my socks off. Since I didn't think folks knew about it, I was going to write about it for a Forgotten Book Friday. Still might. If you're into audiobooks, the reader is fantastic.
BTW, I'll be posting a Forgotten Book later tonight (Stolen Woman by Wade Miller).
Great book to try on audio if my library has it.
Patti, there's a bit of distance between us, otherwise it'd be great. (I'd have to read Anti-Oedipus first... Schivelbusch and Sontag I have read and bits of Benjamin, and, wait, who else did I mention?) Lou Boxer invited to NoirCon in 2010, though.
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