esrosedotblog

DUTCH TREAT

Elmore Leonard has written 39 books and I have read all of them. Well, one is actually short stories. I wait for each one to come out. He never disappoints. I did not much like the one that took place in the 19th Century, but, in the end, it is all good. I am in the middle of the new one; MR. PARADISE. It is tasty; more to the hard core than recent ones. I read them very slowly to get all the savor and flavor I can out of them.

I met Leonard in Chicago at a book signing. There wasn't much of a line at first. He is very shy. We have some things in common and we talked for a while. I was in the middle of one of his books at the time and he signed it right where I was reading. Nice. Oh. All his friends call him Dutch. See the picture. I didn't get to know him that well. He is still Mr. Leonard to me.

If I were to write fiction, I would emulate his writing. There is nothing extraneous. It is something. Live speech. Very little description. The characters tell us what we need to see. Oddly, they end up being very cinematic; my mind's eye is filled with the scene. I do not go to the movies of his novels as they all fail; even the successful ones (GET SHORTY). But, I do not go to any films based on books that I have read nor do I read books of any movies I have seen.

I realize that I do not talk much about my reading in the blog. I guess as the reading is a constant; and I have been deep in the DRAGONS OF PERN books for about a year. There are a lot of them. I take breaks. The last non-dragon book was a sword and sorcery novel IMPOSSIBLE ODDS by Dave Duncan who is another 'read everything' guy.

Lest you think my reading lacks depth, I should say that I am slowly reading the Sam Pepys bio as I am following the pace of his diary. I wrote about that one below. I have the very best Churchill bio on the coffee table and have a book mark in it. It has been there about a year or perhaps two. John has the DA VINCI CODE and I will read that one when he is done. I am not sure that qualifies as 'depth' or not. I am not much interested in non-fiction. I go to sleep. I used to read a lot of contemporary novels and then found fantasy fiction (not sci-fi) and took a turn onto genré road. I have not looked back.