"There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself."

We met last night to discuss The Long Goodbye.¹ We were all impressed by Chandler and wanted to read more by him.

I think what we all liked was the way Chandler wrote. I also liked the fact that it seemed like that with this book every character served a purpose, so now we have another author to read.

After talking about the book, we got into a discussion over what modern actor would be a good Marlowe. This actor came to mind.

Yep. Billy Bob Thornton.

Somehow we also got to talking about the character of Candy.

I mentioned (and Satsuma agreed) that the first person to come to my mind when I imagined Candy was that guy from Boogie Nights.

Checking IMDB.com... Luis Guzmán.

As most of you who read my blog know by now, I selected Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis to be the next book club read.

So far, it looks like there's been general approval of my choice. I was asked last night why I chose the book. Satsuma had known that I was seriously considering this Graham Greene book.

I did come up with a cool icon to represent me though.

For several years I've had a fondness for novels with an academic setting such as Richard Russo's Straight Man and Jane Smiley's Moo. For what it's worth, I prefer the Smiley book if only because the fictional university in her book reminded me a lot of Mississippi State University, where I earned my B.A. and M.A.

I've also been known to email links to articles and columns that are found in The Chronicle of Higher Education. A few weeks ago, I was at the website and noticed this article. Initially intrigued, I did some further research. I liked what I read about the book and thought it'd be good.

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¹Significant portions of this blogpost were first posted here.