My feeling is, you dive in with Hap and Leonard. Accessible, fun, gives you lots of good reading.

First book is Savage Season, though to be honest, I started with Mucho Mojo and I think it’s a better entry point.

Also good: The Bottoms, but that’s not a Hap/Leonard tale.

He has a ton of weird pulp stuff (zeppelins!) and some incredible short stories.

For pulp, go Drive-In series http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Drive-Joe-R-Lansdale/dp/098022604X/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262025359&sr=8-21

And for short stories, this comes out soon, and looks to be perfectly representative of his best — http://www.amazon.com/Best-Joe-R-Lansdale/dp/1892391945/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262025359&sr=8-17

– c.

Any suggestions?

-Rob D.

I know there’s at least one other Ambergris novel (City of Saints and Madmen, off the top of my head). Not sure how necessary or complimentary they are to Finch, tho.

David:

I know, right? For the movie that it was, I’m surprised Raimi and the studio didn’t push for a harder rating and a suitably harder film.

And I did see the Lithgow/Hall chat. Awesome stuff. What a gut-puncher of an episode.

– c.

Second off, if Dexter jumped a thousand sharks, that’s fine. I think the end of Season 4 could act as the perfect end to the series. Of course I’ll watch Season 5. I’m not going to assume they can’t recover. But holyshitdamn. Did you see the discussion with Lithgow and Michael Hall after the episode, where Lithgow said his wife was too terrified to sleep next to him after a couple of episodes aired? That man was fucking brilliant. He could stand there not doing anything, and I’d be pee my pants afraid.

I’m a bit past halfway through and my big fear is that a disappointing conclusion could knock the knees out from everything, but so far so good.

This is actually the first Vandameer I’ve read, so I don’t even know if there _is_ other material.

-Rob D.

Still, I’m in it to win it. Heck, the back cover has an endorsement from Lansdale, which is really all that I need.

– c.

Believe it or not, Glee kind of lost me. It feels like they’re making the same mistake that the creator did with Nip/Tuck, wherein he throws every conceivable plotline at the wall in the first season, and then suddenly has nowhere to go. The show amped up the melodrama so fast, my head was spinning.

The first couple episodes were so perfect, my jaw was dropped. But, the goofier it got (and tonally all over the map), the more I gravitated toward what eventually happened: Modern Family, large and in charge.

I do still like Glee, and will give it a chance on DVD.

As for McCammon — go back a book and start with Queen of Bedlam, as it’s a pretty direct lead-in to Mister Slaughter.

Awesome.

– c.

I haven’t read any McCammon in years, but Usher’s Passing and Swan Song still rank high on my all-time favorites list. I’ll be adding Mister Slaughter to my 2010 to-read list.