Well, this post is only two days after the previous one. I am getting better!
Monday night, I turned in early. I thought I might wake up in time to produce some kind of post, but you know what a thought does when it is well fed. Well, I didn't know until Patricia told me years ago; but you catch my drift.
So, during my lunch hours I am trying either to go for a walk or to read a book. I haven't tried reading a book while I was walking, or walking while I was reading a book. Come to think of it, those two last things are pretty much the same thing. But they both look geeky.
I have been making my way through a Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane. Spillane was one of the most popular writers of the 20th century, even though many (most?) critics hated his work. Others defend him and his writing almost to their detriment. I had never read any of his work but had accumulated several of his novels over the years. I decided to rectify that and started off with "Vengeance is Mine" from... 1952, I think it is. The third "Hammer" novel, after "I, the Jury", and "My Gun is Quick". Spillane was so popular a writer, and the character of Mike Hammer was so iconic, that a Hammer book called "The Girl Hunters" was filmed in the early 1960's. The man who played Hammer? Mickey Spillane! It is on my Plex Media Server if you guys want to go look for it.
As for Spillane's writing: I don't get it, at least not yet.
Turgid prose. Even though the book is only 160 pages, it has a glacier pace. I expected misogyny because of the subject matter and the time it was written in, but what I am finding is so over the top, I thought it was a Mad Magazine parody.
I am about one third of the way through the book. I will persevere. I may even try to read another Hammer novel, but I think that may be my limit.
YMMV, of course.
It has been a very long day. Wednesday promises to be even more so. I will keep this post short and promise to try to write something tomorrow evening. I do miss you guys.
See you then.
Bevboy
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