You Never Know Who You'll Run Into In Paris

I bought a used copy of Elmore's 52 Pickup, a book Gregg has on his shelf in the States -- grrrr...for 5 eu, which translates to $7.50 -- at The San Francisco Book Company, near rue Casimir Delavigne, in the 6th arrondissement, where I'd rented an apartment. On the bright side, they were very nice there.

I ended up picking up Swag anyway -- 4 eu/$6 -- because Gregg wanted the edition they had here. Oh, and P.S. I highly recommend both Swag, a hilarious book, complete with the 10 rules of bank robbing written on cocktail napkins, and 52 Pickup, a page-turner also set in my old hometown of Deeetroit.

I've just started reading George V. Higgins' The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, a book which influenced Elmore. I believe Swanie (the legendary H.N. Swanson, his agent) recommended he read it because the book is wall-to-wall dialogue.

And speaking of Elmore's writing, I highly recommend Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules Of Writing -- a book Gregg put together from Dutch's New York Times piece, complete with some cool illustrations by Joe Ciardiello.