52 Novels

Every time I think about The Sunday Salon, Deb Hamel’s terrific group of reader blogs, I’m reminded of the bit in the movie Dances With Wolves when Timmons is driving John Dunbar out to his new post.

Along the way Timmons and Dunbar come across a picked-clean human carcass — presumably that of a post-war pioneer — with a broken arrow in its skull.

Timmons, never missing a thing, says, “I bet someone back east is askin, ‘Now why don’t he write?’”

Not that I’m a significant member of the group (I’m not), but my blog’s listed near the top of the list at The Sunday Salon. Again… it’s not because I’m anyone special. We’re presented alphabetically and those of us with numbers at the beginning of our blogs were put first.

“What does this have to do with anything,” you ask.

Fair question. It has everything to do with the fact that I get a decent amount of traffic from The Sunday Salon — if for no other reason than this joint’s third from the top of the list. As a result, I often wonder if I’m disappointing people who get here from there because there’s, you know, no salon-ness hap’nin when they walk in the 5 to-the 2.

Then again, I also wonder if I’m an arrogant prick for wondering that in the first place.

In any case, a member of a forum I help moderate recently asked the community for non-fiction recommendations.

Despite what you see here — fiction, fiction, and more fiction — I also read a lot of non-fiction over the course of the year. I don’t count those books in the 52 novels because, well, they’re not novels. I suppose if I wanted to pad the resume here, I could include them.

Alas, 52books dot com was already taken and there ain’t no way I’m gonna make the owner an offer for it.

Anyway… here’re a few recent non-fic reads:

THE HARDEST (WORKING) MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS

I picked this up more out of a desire to read Eric Spitznagel’s words than because of any overarching interest in porn. (Disclaimer: I’m a dude and I like porn about the same as the next guy.)

The fact is, Ron Jeremy’s a fascinating guy who’s led an intriguing life. He was a serious actor who stumbled in to porn. He’s legendary in the adult entertainment industry as much for his, you know, as he is for his tireless work ethic and networking. He’s as famous for the brand called “Ron Jeremy” as he is for the on-screen product.

Quite literally, Wayne Gretzgy is the Ron Jeremy of hockey.

Sadly, I didn’t care for this book as much as I’d hoped. It got to be more of the same after the first few chapters: “One time on the set of (movie title), I was (doing some sex act) with the beautiful (female porn star’s name), and (something humorous/serious/endearing) happened.

I will admit, though, that the stories about his family were often rather touching… and the reason I finished reading this one.

STEROID NATION

I really wanted to like this book… and I did like some of it.

But what left me feeling cheated was the way the author, ESPN The Magazine’s Shaun Assael, cobbled together the narrative. We got short vignettes of concurrent history and it made it difficult for me to understand the context. And as soon as I thought I was getting to meat of the vignette, it stopped and moved on to the next.

There’re better ways to tell concurrent histories — see any of Stephen Ambrose’s fine World War II books, for example.

Again, there was good stuff in the book: the changing political priorities and how they affect enforcement policies, how the International Olympic Committee used steroid testing as window dressing for many years, and how many, at the time, virtually unknown players — from Dan Duchaine to Patrick Arnold to Bill Phillips — were instrumental to bringing the drugs into the mainstream.

Still, what I didn’t know seemed far less than what I did know. Combine that with the format and it left me disappointed. Take that for what it’s worth… if you’re not so hip to steroid history, this’ll probably be an enlightening read.

Of course, this isn’t the limit to my non-fic reads in 2008. I’ve also read a number of books as novel-related research: finding missing people, con games, guns, the psychology of killing, and so on. I’ve also been learning a lot about modern American gangs — not for this book, but for maybe the next book. My current non-fic read is THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS… and it’s fantastic.

So how ’bout you… what non-fiction have you been reading? Drop a comment and let’s talk books about real people, places and things.

It would be “Meme Hater.”¹

I’m giving this one a pass because I like Greg Becerra, the man who possesses, um, Greg’s Brain. Good thing because I’m not sure anyone else could handle it. Have you seen some of the shit it produces?²

So here’s the thing…

1. Look up page 123 in the nearest book to you at the time.
2. Find the fifth sentence and write it down. Then write down the three sentences that follow.
3. Once you’ve done this find three other rubes you’d like to tag and send along.

From Richard S. Prather’s THE PEDDLER (figures it’d be dialogue-in-progress):

“… Ellis, oddly enough, is with the vice squad. He just happened to be with Cowen of Homicide.”

Tony didn’t say anything.

“Why did you do it, Tony? …”

I’ve been struggling with whom to tag with this because I’ve seen a good number of my blogging friends playing along with this one. But I’m nothing if not a stickler for the rules.³

Here’re the three unlucky gits I’ve selected:

Matthew
Jeremy
Vienne

Have fun guys.

1. Is it more, or less, politically correct if I call myself “One who hates memes”? [⇑]
2. And I mean “shit” in a good way. Except for the part that makes it impossible for him to resist memes! [⇑]
3. This is a lie. [⇑]

Last to first… the 52-in-52 from 2006.

• The List: A technothriller by JA Konrath (I started this in 2006 and finished in 2007… it would’ve been #53)
• Dead Man’s Tale by Ellery Queen
• Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
• The Korean Intercept by Stephen Mertz
• Dutch Uncle (Hard Case Crime (Paperback)) by Peter Pavia
• Grave Descend (Hard Case Crime (Paperback)) by John Lange
• Ender’s Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card
• The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks
• The Last Match (Hard Case Crime (Paperback)) by David Dodge
• Branded Woman (Hard Case Crime (Paperback)) by Wade Miller
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• The Dark Tower by Stephen King
• 24 Hours by Greg Iles
• The Guns of Heaven by Pete Hamill
• Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge
• The Poet by Michael Connelly
• Death Trick by J. F Burke
• Who Killed Beau Sparrow? (Burke’s Law) by Robert Fuller
• All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
• The Cove by Catherine Coulter
• The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins
• 361 by Donald E. Westlake
• Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, Book 6) by Stephen King
• Kiss Her Goodbye by Allan Guthrie
• Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark
• Straight Cut by Madison Smartt Bell
• Bust (Hard Case Crime) by Ken Bruen
• The Stand (Complete and Uncut) by Stephen King
• Home Is The Sailor by Day Keene
• The Confession by Domenic Stansberry
• Witness to Myself by Seymour Shubin
• Missing Persons (Dr. Alan Gregory Novels) by Stephen White
• Die Like a Man by Michael Delving
• March Violets by Philip Kerr
• Poison: An 87th Precinct Novel by Ed McBain
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Two For The Money by Max Allan Collins
• Mortal Fear by Greg Iles
• Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas
• Traitors Gate by Anne Perry
• Say It With Bullets (Hard Case Crime) by Richard Powell
• The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
• Paranoia by Joseph Finder
• State of Fear by Michael Crichton
• The Bigger They Come (Lam/Cool Mysteries) by Erle Stanley Gardner
• A Touch of Death (Hard Case Crime) by Charles Williams
• Top Of The Heap by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Empty Hours by Ed McBain
• Afro-6 by Hank Lopez
• The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner
• Kiss Me, Deadly (Mike Hammer Series) by Mickey Spillane
• Fade To Blonde by Max Phillips
• Night Walker by Donald Hamilton

Every once in a while there’s something I find on the Web that matters.

Don’t get me wrong, I find lots of useful stuff out there every day, from free software to local events info to amazing things to read by amazing minds. In that respect, I figure we’re all alike. The Web is, after all, the Great Enabler: it seems we waste a lot a freaking time using it to make our lives more productive.

I’ve personally spent an hour (or five) searching for a deal or a tool that gives me more time to look for more great deals or tools somewhere down the line.

But things like Books for Soldiers goad me back to reality.

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I mentioned here that I’d never read any of the members of The Outfit’s books. I lied.

I didn’t remember that Sara Paretsky writes the V.I. Warshawski series. I read Blood Shot quite some time ago (dozen years?)… certainly in the wake of the panned Kathleen Turner movie.

* shrug *

Color me stupid. Or forgetful at the least.