Conversation

Just recalling that I used to read a ton of pulp adventure thriller writers as a teenager but never do anymore. Alistair Maclean, Desmond Bagley, Dick Francis, Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith (all incidentally available widely in India often in cheap pirated editions)
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Dick Francis (horse racing world adventures) was second favorite. Among the generics I think I liked Bagley best, though Nackean was more famous.
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Cold War genre really, even if not spy-vs-spy, which I never enjoyed as much, though some John Le Carre and Len Deighton were kinda good.
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I read a ton of westerns too (Louis L’Amour and J. T. Edson) simply because they were easily available. But never enjoyed them as much. Less universal appeal than Cold War thrillers.
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Replying to
Trying to decide if the spirit of thrilling adventure is kinda dead. It might be. It’s all procedural crime and bureaucracy now.
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Fingers crossed for post-Covid global reconstruction/climate action adventure thriller genre. Monosyllabic tough guys investigating vaccine and wind- farm corruption. Girl protagonists acceptable too so long as they’re monosyllabic and tough with no inner life. Voids ‘r us.
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A big factor for me was that my dad LOVED these books and would let me share his paperbacks. A big treat was him returning from a trip and handing over his latest book to me. Then I was allowed to stay up late and read on the weekend