Nothing wrong with short stories. They're sometimes great and often at least as good as an author's longer works. Since most novelists start out on short stories, they're also a great introduction to a writer at a digestible pace, and give you a sense of where he's come from and where he's going. Reading through a lot of the short stories an author wrote before he was ready to write novels can give me a sense of being privy to the story of his developing skill and imagination. I think that's by far the best introduction to a novelist.

If nothing else, it lets you know whether you're likely to want to put in the energy to read his novels, or maybe even two or three of them in case the first one or two are iffy or outright duds.

i read that one, and a couple others about cheating in poker. This one was probably the best one, although they have all seemed alittle unbelievable, this one espically, but its short and i read it in like a day and ahalf.

i just finished no country for old men, it was meh to me. I read the road also and didnt like it, but people spoke so highly about no country on 2+2 so i got it.

right now im reading motherless brooklyn, and the crying of lot 49, but i cant seem which one i want to commit to andfinish first.

Vintage books have just brought out a "Vintage Twins" promotion here, where you can buy various double packs of books that supposedly complement each other. I've just bought The Brothers Grimm complete fairytales, which came with Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber".

I don't think I've ever read any of the Grimm stories before, so I'm looking forward to starting a batch of them sometime tonight. I'd never even heard of the Carter book, but from the cover it seems she's revised a bunch of fairy tales and looks like it's going to be a pretty fun read too.

Fairy tales are fantastic, have fun. If anyone today could write anywhere near well enough to have it carried down as oral tradition for hundreds of years, the world would beat a path to his door.

Just finished reading To Air is Human: One Man's Quest to Become the World's Greatest Air Guitarist. It was a very funny book and I recommend it for anyone looking for something fun and not too serious.

Angela Carter is fantastic.

I'm reading these books at the moment:

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Ironweed by William Kennedy
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

I was just given I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. I will be reading this shortly after Catcher in the Rye I think. Has anyone read this or heard good/bad things about it?

Have you read William Kennedy before? I really love his book "Roscoe". I also enjoyed "Flaming Corsage" a lot. I liked Roscoe more because the theme was more interesting to me, but "Flaming Corsage" was narrated in a style I liked a lot.

whoa....deja vu....didn't you ask me this already a little while ago??

I guess I have to reread the Time Machine, H.G Wells. I remember it vaguely, but I got this new TV and it was playing HD and well, now I have to reread to see if it has any semblance to what I read when thirteen.

Red mars, green mars, blue mars … a favorite after the Foundation. Find me something after Neal Stevenson and I will be happy with a book recommendation. Please don’t let me kill another thread.

I just finished reading Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, by Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club. It is a fictitious story of a guy who would eventually start a rabies epidemic. I found the oral biography format a little annoying, and the end to be scatter-brained and disappointing. I got the feeling he didn't know how to end it so he just made it weirder. I get that feeling from most of his books, but keep reading them.

I am almost done with Identity by Milan Kundera. It is not a real compelling plot, it just basically tells the story of an incident in a romantic relationship, but what i like about Kundera is the way he describes people and the way he explains their thoughts and feelings. I find it real easy to connect with the characters in his books.

Maybe. I don't remember if I did. I searched the posts I did on the other "recent books" thread and it didn't have that question.

I just picked up a book called:

"Sweet: An Eight Ball Odyssey by Heather Byer.

It just came out this year, and has a thumbs up from James McManus. I haven't got to where she starts diving into the story yet, but I did have a few good chuckles. It is about the author's experience in Pool. I don't know anything about the story, but I guess it is about her trying to become professional (sharking) at it in New York City.

I'm reading Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" for a philosophy class. It's wonderful so far.

just got the latest Burke novel by Andrew Vachss: Mass Market. I can't wait to dive in!

who the heck is this Kiera person and why is she blue??

Not that I'm complaining, I've just never seen her before.

Welcome, Kiera!

It's not that Kiera.

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon

Thanks Dave. I'll def. check this out. Once upon a time I had aspirations of becoming a pro...lol.

Anyway, to return the favor, check out "Hustler Days" and "Playing off the Rail."

Speaker for the dead - orson card

I loved ender's game, it's the sequel. looking forward to a great read

Some book of Chomsky extracts/transcripts.

Skipping through 'Poker Face' by Judi James again too whenever I go take a [censored].

~1/3 of the way through Moby Dick.

Can I safely skip the innumerable chapters detailing the technical intricacies of whaling, cetology and whale lore?

No