Just a side comment about the non-existent "crush"...
...which made me smile, Art.
Though I couldn't say for sure, I think the reason Tom and I have had this conversation as long as we have is this: we think about the same types of things, and share certain tastes in literature, but have arrived at these common points from the antipodes.
It's rather like two threads in a weave, a green one in the warp and a black one in the weft, eyeing each other and wondering how they wound up in the same plaid.