By Max Shulman (1919-1988), perhaps best known for his creation of Dobie Gillis.

This is one of his "adult" comedy novels, dealing with the mores of the mid-50s, specifically as played out in and around Faifield County, Connecticut.

My Dad had the paperback of this one, when I was about ten years old, and I was fascinated by the cover art, by Eldon Dedini, whose work I would come to know better in later years as a regular contributor to PLAYBOY.

So far -- I'm only a few chapters in -- the book is well written and very wry, but what really stands out is the way it touches upon the arc of my own life. That ten year old kid up in Edmonton, Canada, would never have been able to imagine that one day the locations in which this novel takes place would become what he'd call "home".

Starting TOUGH WITHOUT A GUN: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of HUMPHREY BOGART by Stefan Kanfer

I am a fan of his movies but really don't know much about his life outside of them. So far. So good.

Just finished Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson. I liked it very much though I had a niggle that he fortunately talked about in the afterword. Solid argument.

Almost finished The Age of Odin by James Lovegrove but I'm struggling with it. I'll probably finish (about fifty pages left) but I don't think I'll be picking up another Lovegrove book.

About to start Physics of the Future by Machio Kaku. A science book about technologies likely to emerge over the next hundred years.

GRAIL PAGES Original Comic Book Art and The Collectors

By Steven Alan Payne

Just a quick flip through the pages I can see that our own Jim Warden is thanked in the book a few times.