after finally finishing t.c. boyle's wonderful but long 'road to wellville', i decided to go with something a little lighter for my next few reads. i just finished john d. macdonald's 'nightmare in pink', the second travis mcgee novel. macdonald is one of those rare authors whose writing manages to piss me off and exhilarate me at the same time, both reactions due to the quality of his writing. nightmare is not as good as the first travis mcgee book 'the deep blue goodbye' but even when he is slightly off macdonald is better that most writers at their best.

now i have moved on to neil gaiman's 'american gods'. i first discovered him through a thrift store purchase of his wonderful first novel, 'neverwhere', which has also been produced as a bbc miniseries. gaiman is a great new novelist who is destined to leave a major impact on the fantasy genre.