I guess I'm old-fashioned, but I find reading a book to be a lot more fun and entertaining than staring at an iPhone. I've always loved reading, but I'm quite specific about my tastes when it comes to fiction.
My favourite genres of literature are the American hard-boiled detective novel and the British spy novel. I've read almost everything by the three early masters of the detective thriller — Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald — who set the standards of the genre during its heyday from the 1930s to the '60s. I've also read works by some of the entertaining hacks of the genre like Mickey Spillane.
Their books conjure up a world that doesn't really exist anymore, where the sun-bleached streets of Los Angeles or the cold grey alleyways of places like New York and Chicago are ruled by tough gangsters, femmes fatales, crooked cops and corrupt politicians. Come to think of it, maybe the world then wasn't so different from the one we know now after all! At the centre of the story was usually a private detective, who was tough, hard-living and cynical but who was also smart, good-hearted and driven by an unshakable code of honour.
The best of these novels, particularly the works of Raymond Chandler such as The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake and The Long Goodbye, feature amazingly original and amusing similes and one-liners that sparkle off the page. The writing is highly entertaining, but also very literate and well-structured, with the ability to move the reader deeply and teach us something about the human condition and the world we live in.
Although very different in many ways from American noir fiction, the best of the British spy authors thrill and inspire me in the same way. The action-packed but unrealistic adventures of Ian Fleming's famous James Bond are fun to read, but I prefer the more realistic, character-driven spy novels of Len Deighton, Graham Greene and John le Carré. Featuring intricate plots of international intrigue during the height of the Cold War during the 1950s, '60s and '70s, the novels by these authors were often inspired by real-life events that went on behind the scenes of society, out of the public eye. Greene and le Carré even worked as real-life spies in the British Secret Service at one time or another.
Cold War spy novels can provide some interesting insight into why the world is like it is now, with its seemingly never-ending problems of war, terrorism and exploitation. I also love the bleak atmosphere of these books, and the glimpses they provide into the worlds of Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East at the time, providing a historical context for the more globalised world of today.
One of the fun things about discovering a genre of fiction that you like is finding out who the best authors of the genre are and searching for their work online or in bookshops. After that, you can dig deeper and discover lesser-known books and authors, which can lead to the finding of rare and under-appreciated gems.
Whether it's spy, sci-fi, romance, historical or hysterical books that you enjoy, anything that inspires your imagination and makes you think is well worth reading.
Ben Edwards
Editor
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