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Most of my books are organized by category, and some of the categories are alphabetized by author. But, some of the categories only make sense to me, and aren't all that rigid. For instance, Rex Stout is a category unto himself and those books are ordered chronologically. My "biblio-mystery"...

Coggins, If you're looking to ease your way into non-fiction from mystery fiction, you might want to check out the Collected Letters of Raymond Chandler. Some of Chandler's purest, most effective prose came out in his letters. More to the point, though, I don't think that anyone need...

I heard that the Stones were horrible. Not just too old to be carrying on like that, but seriously out of tune and practice. The commercials were very disappointing. But, as has been said, the Steelers won, so I guess it's OK.

You might enjoy Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino or maybe Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn.

The titles which occur to me off-hand are: The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco The Amber Room - Steve Berry The Da Vinci Deception - Thomas Swan The Eight - Catherine Neville King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard Several titles by Arturo...

I am a confirmed coffee drinker. I prob'ly average 6 cups a day, steaming hot and black. I even drink it in the hottest stretch of summer. I often drink it after 10 pm. As an ex-alcohol drinker, it is my socializing beverage of choice.

I'm definitely watching the game. I suffered through a lot of years when the Steelers stank. But, I am definitely not making any predictions or anything. I don't want to jinx anything.

You might want to try John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World. Technically, it is about the revolution, but I imagine it is good. I read his book Insurgent Mexico and found it quite good.

Well, I think they're all good choices, but I keep thinking of books I should have thought of. Just last night as I wqas nodding off I thought "How could I forget Shakespeare?" I very nearly forgot Exley, Fitzgerald, and Kerouac. But then, my brain doesn't always work.

I won't claim to know all of the essentials, but here are some titles that are on my permanent list: Joseph Conrad - Victory Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim Gabriel Garcia-Marquez - 100 Years of Solitude Walker Percy - The Moviegoer F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby Franz Kafka - The Trial...

I will heartily recommend, as I have done elsewhere, the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I think that there are forty-odd books in the series, and all of them good.

Some of my nominations: Total Loss Farm by Ray Mungo At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

Certainly, I think, a writer of sufficient talent could incorporate technology into a story without losing any of the elements which make mysteries fun, but grant that it would be hard to do. I think the key would be to not let the technology take over the story ( as in a Tom Clancy book, for...

Of course, if your interested in the "hard-boiled" school, you have to read Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, but the list hardly ends there. I've read one of Crais' books, which was OK; and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone reminds me more of Jim Rockford than Sam Spade (not a criticism). If...

SFG, I'll recommend the novels of Rex Stout. I've recently discovered Parker myself, and was surprised by how much his style resembled Stout's - a sort of easy wittiness, funny but not cutesy, hard-boiled without being a cliche. Start with Fer-de-Lance if you can find it, but Stout's books...

Goodwill is the tip of the iceberg (luckily) for me. Just today I picked up a Holmes pastiche (is that the right word?) by John Gardner for 40 cents in an antique mall. But, yeah, the end of the semester is a good time to make the rounds.

I'd say that somewhere between one half and three quarters of all my books have come to me by way of thrift shops, library sales, flea markets, etc. so the list could go on for quite a while. Some of my favorites: 1st edition of Kerouac's Visions of Cody from Goodwill for $1. Neal Casady's...

I think it will turn out that Bonds is really Darth Vader.

I know that back when the Pirates had their own version of the "Killer Bs", Barry Bonds got compared to Clemente fairly often. Back then the comparisons seemed premature, now they are flat out ridiculous. Back then. Barry was just a guy who disappeared in the post season, now he's a cheater...

Alison, You might also want to read very nearly anything by Joseph Conrad. Many of his books and stories have to do with the nature of imperial culture. If you like something with a very distinctive voice, you might want to look for T.R. Pearson's Short History of a Small Place.