Not here, GimmeWatch, not here ...

Hullo, Will - don't forget to say what Tokyoflash watch you want in the comment.

Lame headlines will continue until morale improves!

I need one of them trouble bells for when Neatorama commenters get ornery ...

@DeLukas: I am guessing you should also add that there is no such thing as “knockout gas” outside of movies.

Actually, there is such a thing. The Russian OSNAZ team used it in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.

Medium east = danger!

The worst is the automated phone call - I just got a new number, and I get "This is an important phone call. It is not a sales call. Please call (800) ... .... as soon as possible."

When I called the number, all I got was hang ups ...

Happy birthday, Ali!

Don't forget Neatorama's own list: 10 Most Beautiful Bridges in the World

I've read Clive Cussler but all I remember from it was how he liked vintage old cars, expensive cigars and single malt scotch. Can we say, tax write off for "research?" ;)

Dune - now that's a book! The first one was awesome, but I haven't kept up with the subsequent books in the series. Come to think of old sci-fi novels that I've read, I really liked Rama and other books by Arthur C. Clarke, and Hyperion (the first one) by Dan Simmons.

@onecrazymomma: Nothing by Albert Camus belong in anyone's summer reading list, except maybe a masochist. :)

I started "Spook Country" by William Gibson but couldn't for the life of me finish it - I know he became a legendary author for Neuromancer (read that too) but I couldn't understand a sentence he wrote ... (happened when I was reading Neuromancer too)

I agree with the Hitchhiker Guide series - those are classic (read every single one except the last one - is it any good?)

Don't forget Isaac Asimov - the Foundation series is probably the only set of books I've read twice. The Robot series are also a gem.

For the supernatural lover, the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz is fun.

Thanks to Dust, I'm now so intrigued by Barry Hughart's Master Li series.

Here's the synopsis of Eight Skilled Gentlemen:

Master Li, the Sherlock Holmes of a mythical China, struggles with a bizarre mystery involving the murdering of mandarins, as evidence points to the Eight Skilled Gentlemen, long-dead shamans who engage demon-dieties to perform their evil deeds

I think I'll check him out!

Hah! Harlan Coben is like the M. Night Shyamalan of literature - I read his book a while back and my head just asplodes with all the plot twists...

I love Asterix and Obelix, Tintin, and other comics but I'm afraid I've gotten too old to read comics. Oh, sorry, graphic novels. :)

Believe it or not, I've read "Vertical Run" - grabbed it at random from the library shelf. I finished it, so it wasn't bad, but because I'm not able to tell you anything about it, that means the book wasn't all that memorable to me.

One author I'd like to recommend is John Sandford (the Kidd series, not the Prey series). It's about a computer hacker who, well, gets into and out of trouble.

And to Victor Fricke: I don't think Ayn Rand belongs in the "summer reading" category! :)

Ah, Vonnegut - yes, excellent recommendation but I think I've read all of his books.

I've read Ender's Game (and the sequel? I can't remember). That was good.

I think I can do a quilt - though don't you have to use some sort of a super-duper needle to stitch 'em together?

I think Jacqueline Susann, author of Valley of the Dolls, also gamed the NY Times best seller list by going to the bookstore and buying loads and loads of her own book - thereby pushing it to the Top 10 Bestseller List.

Subsequently, the NY Times changed their procedure to only count 1 book per purchase.