Thursday night I finished re-reading Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" as a prelude to watching the John Huston-directed film based on same for the very first time. Last night I started re-reading Hammett's "The Glass Key" instead of watching the movie, as it had also been ages and ages since I'd read that (though at least I've already seen the film adaptation of this one, long ago). I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to lead to my also re-reading the two Continental Op novels, "Red Harvest" and "The Dain Curse" and then the two volumes of Continental Op short stories I also own. It has definitely already lead to me ordering a copy of the "Nightmare Town" anthology upon realizing that although I have read the three Sam Spade short stories aeons ago I don't actually own 'em (all three are in "Nightmare Town"). And then I'll be doomed to re-read "The Thin Man" as well.

Dashiell Hammett. He's definitely an addiction. ;p

P.S. It's always been a source of strange amusement to me that the character Hammett wrote most (two novels and a couple dozen short stories), the Continental Op, is the one people are least likely to have heard of. That's a shame because the tales featuring this character-with-no-name are excellent.

Tags: reading