As you, I've never read any of his books but I've always wanted to try them out. Read this article earlier;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9443759/Gore-Vidal-the-last-of-the-greatest-American-generation.html
Which was interesting, and this quote caught my eye - "To be absolutely honest, our golden age was somewhat less than 24-carat”
Definitely going to get into reading some of his stuff. R.I.P.