Absolutely ditto! THW and TLS are my least preferred also, in that order, in what is to be fair a magnificent run of novels. Playback is obviously a much slighter piece of work than the others, and probaby next in that ranking as we ascend, but it has a certain uniqueness and curio value.
I too have Chandlerisms burned into me. Just last weekend I told my brother-in-law “I can fade that too!” during a game of chess - I know it’s from crap shooting, but I got it from, IIRC, “the carroty man” who’s a super in some rundown boarding house (TLS again, I think).
