Fallout 3 Too Prone to Crashing

I'm not bashing the game because I have close to fifty hours logged and am nearly 19th level. Still, the game crashes often. Too often. I've trained myself to reflexively hit the quicksave button at more frequent intervals. I don't click as often as I do my weapon's fire button, but it's a close second. The problem is that hitting quicksave sometimes leads to a crash. So one of the few defenses I have against an unwelcome delivery to desktop is also an eager participant.

In lieu of the crashing, I mean to shelve Fallout3 temporarily, monitor Bethesda's site for a patch, and then resume playing when the game is more stable.