Last night when I left the office I stopped at my favourite English bookstore (The English Bookshop, via Mascheroni 12, Milano -- they have a very nice if a bit too fat female Siberian Husky, pat her for me if you go there) to try and find something decent to read without having to resort to the Internet.

They don't have that many books, but they have a good selection and they don't limit their stock to bestsellers or new issues. After a while, I picked up a copy of John D. MacDonald's The Deep Blue GoodBye, without expecting too much. The book was published in 1964, and I had to overcome my usual diffidence towards "old" mystery novels (though most of my favourite books are pretty old and I don't like shops stocking only new issues lol).

I read about half the book last night, and if the rest of his novels are like this one I wonder why it took me so long to find him. Travis McGee reminds me somehow of Spenser (Robert B. Parker's Boston detective), a private eye with a heart. Unlike Spenser Mc Gee is a kind of a social bum, and he is less macho and more introspective. A nice site dedicated to Travis McGee can be found at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~mwarble/slipf18/home.htm

On a side note, while checking the spelling of Spenser (what is the usual Spenser's phrase for that? Spenser like the poet maybe...) I came upon The Spensarium, an interesting site devoted to all things Spenser (and more). For an Italian the name is a bit funny since it sounds a lot like names we use for hospitals or recovery homes for specific illnesses but the site is very nice, if you're a Spenser or Robert B. Parker fan check it out.