>>2
Right on.
Everyone interested in old school pulps need to go raid their local bookstore for all the Hard Case Crime books they can get their hands on. They republish tons of cool old hardboiled pulp novels. I have damn near thirty of those things, and I've read them all a couple times.
Also, all of you need a copy of The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. Check it out here:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Lizard-Big-Book-Pulps/dp/0307280489/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227243308&sr=8-1
Black Lizard is also awesome. They republish a lot of old detective fiction, but the more legit fiction like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep and A Rage in Harlem. All are great books by the way. Anyway. It's cheap. I got it at Barnes and Nobel for like $15, and I haven't even read a fraction of all the stories in it.