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Off the top of my head, I'd have to say: Bladerunner (Rutger Hauer has never been scarier) Indiana Jones (especially 1 and 3) Apocalypse Now The Big Liebowski Raising Arizona

Oddly enough, I find myself watching more and more golf (especially the Majors). 9 times out of 10, it is deadly dull, but that other 1 is usually pretty high drama.

Jason, I suppose you are right. That is, being something of a "techie", and even having formulaic plots, doesn't necessarily make Clancy a bad writer. After all, there was a time when I was mad about Robert Ludlum even after I started to see that his plots followed predictable genre lines...

I don't want to speak for Booker, but I had a similar reaction to The Hunt for Red October. I won't say that Clancy isn't a good writer, but I found his fixation with military specs tedious. If I want to know everything there is to know about an F-18, for example, I'll read Jayne's.

Corso, I'm glad to see that I am not the only one to have that reaction to "modern" fiction. I read one of Oprah's picks (Where the Heart Is) and found it dreadful. I also read Martin Dressler (a Pulitzer Prize winner) and found it predictable and dull. I think that's why so many people (me...

Like I said, I thought Diamond Age was wonderful (with the exception of what I remember being a very confusing sub-plot). But, there is something about the book. Certainly, the writing is more three-dimensional and emotionally resonant.

Samurai, I noticed that you listed Snow Crash as a favorite, and that you have yet to read The Diamond Age. I would be interested to know your reaction. I thought that Diamond Age was wonderful, but different. (Also, if you've never read Pynchon or Selby before, they're quite difficult...

Rain Dog, I couldn't agree with you more. I was expecting (or hoping for) the movie to follow the Frank Miller path. Instead, the movie came out looking like a bad MTV video (from about 10 years ago). There were some good ideas, but they got lost while the director was clubbing his audience...

It's funny that you mention Invisible Cities . I read it some years ago, but remember it having a very pronounced "wistful" quality. I mean, the "emotion" in that book, I thought, came from the overall effect of imagining the fleeting nature of empire. Thinking about it, I probably shouldn't...

Morry, I am glad to see that I got the right idea about your thoughts on Eco. However, I didn't mean to say that erudite stories and emotionally effective stories are mutually exclusive. I just meant that Eco's (or any author's) use of "Borges-ian tricks" (what you call "literary style...

Though it's been a while since I read Eco, I can sort of see what Morry is saying. I think, though, that it is less a problem with Eco's style than a symptom of a style of writing. I seem to remember that thinking, for instance, that Foucault's Pendulum was as much a sort of self-referential...

I'm a little confused; didn't Perez-Reverte write The Club Dumas , not Eco? Either way, I haven't read any of Perez-Reverte's books yet, but have read Eco's The Name of the Rose , Foucault's Pendulum , and The Island of the Day Before . I thoroughly enjoyed the first two, but found the last...

Ian, many years ago, I read P.R. Reid's Escape from Colditz and was truly amazed by the exploits of the Allied prisoners there. And, by the way, there is a very nice (though very brief) discussion of the Enigma machine in Simon Singh's The Code Book .

I just finished A Girl Named Zippy and am currently reading Rex Stout's Before Midnight (for like the 6th time) and I Thought My Father Was God edited by Paul Auster.

I can't say that I have ever bought a book just because of the cover, though at times cover design has caused me to pass on certain books. But, cover design does influence my buying decisions. Perhaps foolishly, I assume the cover to be a projection of the tone of a book. (This is...

Thanks Ell & Darren. I think I've got it.

Actually, Ell, I have been using the "post reply" button rather than the "post a quick reply" feature. I also took a quick look at the members control panel and didn't see anything there that looked applicable. Again, thanks for the help, and your patience.

Thanks, Ell. However, as I am typing this, I don't see those buttons. Is there some setting elsewhere that wouldn't allow those to show up? (I see, for instance, that "HTML code" is "off" in the Forum Rules box.)

It has been bugging me, since I joined the Forum, that I haven't been able to underline the titles of books. I suppose that it is some very basic procedure. I would appreciate some pointers. Thank you.

TMC, several books leapt to mind when I read your post. The first idea I had from the world of fiction was H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. It is the archetypal Victorian adventure novel, set in "darkest Africa" and featuring a dashing hero and fabulous treasure. However, most of the...