h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just a little note to complement you on your literary taste. It must be one of the best books ever written. It certainly is the best I've ever read. And the peak for me was when Yossarian went with Milo on that business trip. I laughed so hard it took me days just to finish the chapter.

Have you read the sequel? It was published in 94 and is also quite a disturbing tale. Yossarian in his seventies, still making money for Milo, who is as ruthless as ever. It's called "Closing Time" and I think it was the last one Heller wrote before he died.

Hi Wiz! (may i call you wiz?)

Catch-22 is definitely my favourite book of all time. It's so funny and yet so deep/moving at the same time, which i love.

I read "closing time" last year and I was a bit disappointed though i suppose it was a bit daft to assume it would be as good as C-22. Incidentally it wasn't Heller's last book. Just a few weeks ago i finished reading "Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man" which was written about 1997 and I think it's much better than "Closing Time". You can't really compare Portrait to C-22 though it's entirely different in every way apart from that I think it's a bit autobiographical, which I think most of his work probably is.

My favourite C-22 bit is when Milo explains to Col. cathcart how to run the sydicate and in the end he forbids milo to fly any more missions. (I've tried to do the maths on the eggs thing but I'm not sure that it works out...it's a little confusing!).

Anyway, thanks for complimenting me on my literary taste...you got any other authors you could recommend?

Lots of love, Sarah.

Sure Sarah, wiz is OK. Thanks for the tip on the Heller book, I didn't know. Other favourites of mine are Kurt Vonnegut, Iain Banks, John Steinbeck, Charles Bukowski, H. E. Bates, Mark Twain, Carl Hiaasen, William Gibson + a bunch of Norwegian authors you probably wouldn't know about apart from maybe Ibsen and Hamsun. I could say John Irving but I've only really read the Garp one, which was brilliant. Heller also wrote a good one called God Knows. Have you read it? If you're not familiar with Vonnegut you really ought to get to know him, starting off with Breakfast of Champions or Slapstick. And you? Any tips for me?