re: HST. All I know of him is what you folks have written here. Educate me further, please? So far the picture you all have painted isn't a great one:
1) Apparently scared the bejeezus out of himself riding a Black Shadow, no doubt irresponsibly (i.e., not on the track or a dry lake bed).
2) Pans the Ducati Monster (or was it the 996?) because he isn't up to the task of learning to ride it well. This is akin to me saying "F1 cars are just too damn powerful to be safe". I am in no way qualified to make this statement.
3) Signs his book with a .45. Is this an indicator of his assessment of the quality of his work? Or does he just want you to buy another copy?
Hmm. As for popularity, well, I've found "unpopular" (or little-known) works to often be better than that which is "popular". And no, I don't need cool quotes to get laid.
Hey, I'm not trying to be hostile here. It just comes out that way.
If you guys like HST, that's cool with me...to each his own. However, in a day where all you need to do is turn on the evening news if you want to laugh your ass off at biting satire, I tend to reserve my reading time for other genres.