I wear both hats equally well.

How do you put a hat on a horses . . . forget I asked.

Ken V.

Victor/Victoria

Ken V.

YES! Good job!

The only problem here is figuring out which of you is the moron, and which is the horses ass. :dontknow:

Ken V.

Who says that one is not both? *COUGHsCOUGHcCOUGHoCOUGHtCOUGHT*

Yes!

Ken V.

Thanks for clearing that up.

back on topic...

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned some of the usual suspects when FPW's being talked about:

Andrew Vacchs' works are awesome: Start with "Flood" and you'll be hooked. Buying his books does the world good, too (his profits go to supporting his pro-bono legal practice helping abused kids)

Joe R. Lansdale: His Hap and Leonard novels fit the Thriller and Comedy categories. They start with the hard-to-find Savage Season, but you can skip straight to Mucho Mojo without losing anything. His period mysteries including The Bottoms are amazing.

If you like books about decent people dealing with idiot crooks, try Elmore Leonard. There's plenty to choose from, and you'll be surprised at how watered down the movie versions end up.

If you like Jack's brushes with the supernatural, Dean Koontz is probably a good bet. His characters are a little repertory stock, but some great bizarre plots. Don't miss "Lightning"

Over the weekend I started Mad Dogs by Brian Hodge and thus far I'd say it'd fit your comic thriller mode. I'm confident that it will stay good because Hodge is another writer you can generally count on to deliver the goods. He is primarily a horror writer, check out Nightlife, Dark Advent, & Oasis or any of his many short stories. In his last couple of books, Wild Horses & Mad Dogs he has morphed into a solid crime/comedy writer.

Over the weekend I started Mad Dogs by Brian Hodge and thus far I'd say it'd fit your comic thriller mode. I'm confident that it will stay good because Hodge is another writer you can generally count on to deliver the goods. He is primarily a horror writer, check out Nightlife, Dark Advent, & Oasis or any of his many short stories. In his last couple of books, Wild Horses & Mad Dogs he has morphed into a solid crime/comedy writer.

Scott. Trust me on this. Please. F. Van Wyck Mason. In his field (historical fiction, the early days of our country), he is as good as Robert Heinlein or...hmmm...Paul. PM me your mailing address, and I will send you one of his books. I ain't kidding.

[SIZE="3"]Stephen Hunter's books are almost all excellent. Check out his Bob the Nailer series.[/SIZE]

YES MAN!!!

I hope they do a sequel to Shooter. I was skeptical about Mark Wahlberg at first, but he sold it pretty well. And I get that they had to update the story, or else it would have been a period piece at this point in time. I'd like to see them move onto Earl Swagger movies, too. Maybe have Donnie Wahlberg play Earl. Rereading The Second Saladin right now.

Anyway, I digress. To those of you who said Christopher Moore: Bravo. The man is a comedic genius. Dirty Job was brilliant. I cried from laughing so hard in multiple places, (the only other author to make me do that was Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency).

Carl Hiassen is classic. His best work in my opinion was either Native Tongue or Double Whammy.

Robert Crais as well. Good detective novels with some original characters.

James Swain has some pretty cool books about a guy who catches casino cheats.

If you like fantasy books, I like Ramond E. Feist. I'm not so much a fantasy fan, but I like his books and ideas.

Max Brooks' World War Z was an absolute masterpiece, if you like the zombie genre. Just brilliant and original too. He's developed a whole zombie mythos in just two books, (that and The Zombie Survival Guide).

Fierce Invalids from Hot Climates was okay. My problem was that I could only stomach so much of him force-feeding his politics down my throat. Otherwise, pretty original.

Or heck. Just read Michael Shaara. He wrote the books Gods and Generals and The Killer Angels. Good half-historical half-fictional work about the Civil War.

YES MAN!!!

Max Brooks' World War Z was an absolute masterpiece, if you like the zombie genre. Just brilliant and original too. He's developed a whole zombie mythos in just two books, (that and The Zombie Survival Guide).

I'd been hearing a lot of good stuff about this book for a while so I went out and got it this weekend so I'll be starting it later this week. In related news J. Michael Strasynzski (creator of Babylon 5, writer of Amazing Spider-Man, Supreme Power, Thor and The Twelve) wrote the screenplay for this movie and it is quickly making the rounds in Hollywood. He also wrote the screenplay for "The Changeling"; the upcoming Clint Eastwood directed film.

Read WWZ in hardcover when it first came out, then lent it to a co-worker who was apparently Hewhodoesnotreturnbooksever. Just rebought it yesterday.

Yeah the movie is gonna be big. Brad Pitts production company is the one doing it, and it can easily be done with a very political edge to it so I am sure we'll be hearing about it for months.

I just finished reading Lamb for the umpteenth time. He is LONG overdue for another book.

My family is one filled with Civil War Re-enactors so I am WAY too familiar with the Shaara books.

Currently I am finishing up Gils All Fright Diner ( A. Lee Martinez) which is very Lansdale-like, Rereading Midnight Mass, Re-reading WWZ, and of course putting together outlines for books of my own I will never come close to completing.

And somehow I am still craving more books. Go figure.

Read WWZ in hardcover when it first came out, then lent it to a co-worker who was apparently Hewhodoesnotreturnbooksever. Just rebought it yesterday.

Yeah the movie is gonna be big. Brad Pitts production company is the one doing it, and it can easily be done with a very political edge to it so I am sure we'll be hearing about it for months.

I just finished reading Lamb for the umpteenth time. He is LONG overdue for another book.

My family is one filled with Civil War Re-enactors so I am WAY too familiar with the Shaara books.

Currently I am finishing up Gils All Fright Diner ( A. Lee Martinez) which is very Lansdale-like, Rereading Midnight Mass, Re-reading WWZ, and of course putting together outlines for books of my own I will never come close to completing.

And somehow I am still craving more books. Go figure.

How about Count of Monte-Cristo? It is 1365 pages, written in an old style. That should keep you busy for a couple days.:p

Yeah, read it. It was in high school, but it wasn't for a class or anything. Anytime the teachers would assign books to be read and reported on they would just ask me for a report knowing I had already read whatever it was on my own. Thats how I ended up sitting up at the teachers desk in most of my classes joking around while everybody else worked. I'd even go out to the local convenience store with one of them on coffee runs, or he would just bring me a coffee.

I wasn't a nerd of Potsy-like proportions or anything. I just loved to read.

And you're so very right about the size of that book. The my ex and I watched the latest film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo and she said she would like to read the book. Next time we were in a book store I showed it to her and laughed.

She didn't buy it.