Somebody hide me out in a little hut somewhere deep in the woods so no bill collectors can find me.

Here's what I'm talking about: I discovered Gary Braunbeck, was blown away, bought a stack of his books. Then read a little tale called November Mourns, by a guy named Piccirilli, ordered a bunch of his books. After that I said, that's it, my to be read pile is too high and soon bill collectors will be hunting me down with pitbulls and lead rain.

I can't buy any more books!

So a package came-very late, I must say-with The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale, an author I had never read. Fearing that it might be a decent book, I put it on my to be read pile and tried to forget about it.

It started to talk and said this to me: "Come on, just read a few of my pages ... you know you want to."

Well, I couldn't sit there and listen to that all night. So, I started the book and now, many chapters later, Lansdale has me blown away, a master storyteller, and I'm fighting off buying more of his books by thinking of killer bill collectors hunting me down when I can't pay my bills due to a nasty addiction to great writers.

Thanks, Gary, Tom and Joe.
(If anyone on here has any suggestions on which Lansdale to read after The Bottoms, let me know-it will have to be after my to be read pile goes down a bit.)

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

I'd recommend something from Lansdale's Hap & Leonard series - starting out with SAVAGE SEASON.

COLD IN JULY is one of Lansdale's favourites and also a good read.

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FLASH VIRUS: EPISODE ONE (always free)

FLASH VIRUS:EPISODE TWO ($1.99)

Pretty much all Lansdale is amazing Lansdale. Scarf up whatever you can wherever you can.

Not for nothing, HD, but I'm jealous of you reading Joe's work for the first time. You're going to have a ball.

Yeah, it sucks being poor, but as the old adage goes, I spend all my money on books first, and if there's anything left over I buy food and pay rent.

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Tom Piccirilli is the author of over 20 novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

In addition to Steve's recommendations, my recent Lansdale favorites are A Fine Dark Line (better than The Bottoms, IMO) and Sunset and Sawdust, which seems to have been largely overlooked for some reason.

Hunter

Lansdale is the king of southern fried horror. Some of his best short work can be found in Bumber Crop and High Cotton. Both are must haves to any serious horror fan's collection.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

I don't remember much about it, because I read it so long ago, but I remember really liking Act of Love. The Nightrunners is also available in the recent collection The God of the Razor, published by Subterranean. It includes The Nighrunners and related stories by Lansdale.

ACT OF LOVE is Joe's first novel. Don't forget his westerns THE MAGIC WAGON and TEXAS NIGHT RIDERS (under the pseudo Ray Slater). And if you really want to get anal about collecting all of Joe's fiction, he also wrote three M.I.A. HUNTER novels under some house pseudonym.

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Tom Piccirilli is the author of over 20 novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

The Bottoms....what a great read that was! Between Nanci, Tom, and David I've gone ahead and ordered a new Landsdale book from Shocklines. I forget what its called but the cover is leather! If I remember correctly its a western zombie tale. The low price just got to me.

Tt

A leather bound Lansdale ... I'm more than jealous.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Tt. Was it Dead In The West?

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

Yeah...I think so.

I'm at work so I can't check, but that sounds like it.

Tt

Thanks, Thad. I've been looking in to a lot of Joe Lansdale's stuff every night. The Bottoms has made me someone who wants to read everything the guy's written.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Man, I was on Joe's website last night and I had no idea the guy was not only a great writer but also a psychotic martial arts master.

It had all his martial arts abilities listed and I must say, Joe sounds like the kind of guy who can kick some major ass.

I'm glad I'd have him on my side being one of his fans. I've never met him, but I'm sure he's a nice guy, that being said, I still wouldn't want to piss him off after what I read on his self-defense belts.

If a guy like Joe ever came at me, you'd see the Horrordude turn into a track star inside of one second and I'd be five blocks away before I'd have ninety-mile an hour fists flying at me.

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~