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[Bozack]

Oh, dang! Wodehouse! Perfect for X-mas break reading.
Anyway, another really awesome one. Delish.

[miles]

He's the type of author anyone who knows how to read would enjoy.

Wodehouse is on my short list of authors I need to check out.  The hardest part is picking the first book.  Any suggestions?

[Nabubrush]

It's all good - I think it would be hard to recommend anything in particular. All the Jeeves and Wooster stuff is pretty good. I like the Golf Omnibus. I have "The Most of PG Wodehouse" - a collection - it's a good introduction. Sees it Through and Code of the Woosters are good. It's not like we're talking about Umberto Eco or something, if you know what I mean.

[wombat]

A friend of mine who has always had truly excellent advice about books has been telling me for years and years to read Wodehouse and for some reason I just don't.  It's gotten to the point that it's turned into a joke that I'm saving Wodehouse so that I have something to look forward to reading in the nursing home when I'm old.  And she can look forward to saying "I told you so!"

[AugustWest]

Wodehouse is like the John LeCarre of light comic novels.

[Nabubrush]

Wodehouse is like the chocolate babies of Englishmen.

[wombat]

Wodehouse is like the John LeCarre of light comic novels.

I haven't the foggiest idea what that could possibly mean, but I assume it's praise?

Hmm, the friend in question made me read all of LeCarre once, too.

[AugustWest]

Wodehouse is like the John LeCarre of light comic novels.

I haven't the foggiest idea what that could possibly mean, but I assume it's praise?

Hmm, the friend in question made me read all of LeCarre once, too.

Hmmm.  I guess I meant that they are both highly accomplished stylists that transcend their genre.

What did you think of LeCarre?

[wombat]

It was a long time ago I read him, but this is what I remember thinking of LeCarre: that spying was like the eighth grade, only with worse consequences.   It was all about what clique you were in, who you were loyal to, and who you lied to.  This is probably something only a girl would think.

I don't remember having any particular opinion of him as a writer, oddly. Obviously he was good or I wouldn't have read them all.  It's possible he was the kind of writer who was so good at what he did that I didn't notice the mechanics.  I don't remember him as the kind of writer where you kept stopping to say "MY god, that's a fine sentence."  But there's something to be said for a style that isn't always hitting you over the head as a style, and I wonder if that was it?

Dang, now you've got me thinking I need to go read one again.  Which is the best one?

[AugustWest]

I don't remember him as the kind of writer where you kept stopping to say "MY god, that's a fine sentence."  

I find, with both of them, that I kept stopping to say, "MY god, that's a fine analysis of the human condition."  Then, while I was stopped I noticed what fine sentences they'd constructed.  

As to a recommendation for LeCarre works, I guess the standard is the :) triology -- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and :)'s People.  One of his later works that I especially enjoyed was Our Game.  I listened to it on tape (unabridged) rather than actually reading it, for whatever that is worth.  Anyhow, I found it highly satisfying on several levels.