John le Carré (really David Cornwell) was a master of his field, writing the classic spy thrillers upon which all modern spy thrillers are based. At least that's what I've heard. Unfortunately, I've read very few of them. In fact, I've read only Our Game, The Russia House, and the excellent The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I think I checked out the marvelous book Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy from the library, since it isn't currently on my shelf. All were good, though I thought that The Russia House was a bit slow. I can't explain why I haven't pursued him more aggressively, but I'm trying to make up for that now with three purchases tonight. The thinnest and most inexpensive at $1.13 is also the second book he ever wrote, A Murder Of Quality, written in 1962. Books published in 1980 have much lower cover prices than those published today, making them a great find at Half-Price Books. For $1.63, I also picked up le Carré's The Looking Glass War, written in 1965. This edition was published in 1981 and was, I believe, his fourth novel. Possibly his fifth book, The Naive And Sentimental Lover does not even sound like a spy novel at all, but I was intrigued by the relationships developed in Tinker, so I decided to give it a try for $1.98.

Seven books for less than fourteen dollars. Yet another reason why old books are best. Now I just have to read them all and write reviews of some of them. I should write reviews of all of them, but my track records doesn't speak well of my commitment to reviews.

(This post also appears at W6 Daily.)