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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 11:14 am Post subject: Good news for Short Story Lovers |
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I was at the Jamshil Kyobo last Friday and hit the jackpot. The 2007 edition of Great American Short Stories is in. This one has a new series editor and the guest editor is Stephen King--so the volume is thicker than usual. 
But that's not the only good news. They also had The Best American Essays (2006, 2007). I'd never read anything from this series and didn't want to spend $14 plus shipping just to find out what 'essays' are in this kind of anthology. Anyway, I scarffed up a copy of both years and started 2006. These are WONDERFUL. Some of them are just non-fiction stories. The first one is the writer's visit to the Kinsey Institute in Indiana. Then there is Poe Ballantine's essay about his lifestyle: he deliberately looks for deadend jobs in smallish places, I guess so he can find material for writing. In this essay he moved from working in a grocery store in Vermont to Louisville, Kentucky. The essay talks about the motel he lived in there...and the hookers in the bad part of town and whacking off. At the end, he is heading out for Waterloo, Iowa. The bio sketch at the back says he's settled down in Chadron (Nebraska, for the geographically challenged. Then there's another kind of essay, more what I expected of an essay. The one about getting old and dying is humorous.
As I said, a jackpot. |
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Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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I'm a short story reader at times and I bought the collection last year. The first story was about Jejudo, surprisingly.
I didn't make it past the first few stories because they weren't captivating. Maybe I should start in the middle of that book and try it again, or just buy the new edition and hope King did a better job. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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| I didn't make it past the first few stories because they weren't captivating. |
Different tastes (or even just different moods). I thought the second story, "Awaiting Orders" by Tobias Wolff was great. I also like Edith Perlman's 'Self-reliance' and Thomas McGuane's "Cowboy" in that volume. (Actually, I've liked all but one or two stories in each of the volumes I've read.) |
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SuperFly
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Location: In the doghouse
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| Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:03 pm Post subject: Re: Good news for Short Story Lovers |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
I was at the Jamshil Kyobo last Friday and hit the jackpot. The 2007 edition of Great American Short Stories is in. This one has a new series editor and the guest editor is Stephen King--so the volume is thicker than usual.
But that's not the only good news. They also had The Best American Essays (2006, 2007). I'd never read anything from this series and didn't want to spend $14 plus shipping just to find out what 'essays' are in this kind of anthology. Anyway, I scarffed up a copy of both years and started 2006. These are WONDERFUL. Some of them are just non-fiction stories. The first one is the writer's visit to the Kinsey Institute in Indiana. Then there is Poe Ballantine's essay about his lifestyle: he deliberately looks for deadend jobs in smallish places, I guess so he can find material for writing. In this essay he moved from working in a grocery store in Vermont to Louisville, Kentucky. The essay talks about the motel he lived in there...and the hookers in the bad part of town and whacking off. At the end, he is heading out for Waterloo, Iowa. The bio sketch at the back says he's settled down in Chadron (Nebraska, for the geographically challenged. Then there's another kind of essay, more what I expected of an essay. The one about getting old and dying is humorous.
As I said, a jackpot. |
Ya-ta,
I'm reading Riding the Doghouse right now, I think it's the fourth story in the 2007 Best American Short Stories...anyway I picked it up two weeks ago at Kyobo in Kwangwhamun. AND I saw it in Kagnam on Sunday afternoon. I also picked up Best American Essays for this year too.  Good call!
I now have (of the short stories series) 2002,2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. I need to get the other years, but it looks like I'm going to have to order them.
If anyone has 2000, 2001, 2005 they want to sell, I would be happy to give you a fair price for them! PM me!!! |
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SuperFly
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Location: In the doghouse
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| Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:47 am Post subject: |
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OK, just finished B.A.S.S. 2007 - undeniabley the best collection I've read yet. The best story in this book is titled Sans Farine, by Jim Shepard. It's about the life of an executioner during the French revolution. Brilliant.
Picked up Best American Short Stories 2005, Best American Essays 2006 and Best American Mystery stories 2007 today.
Note: These are collections of stories submitted by American and Canadian writers. |
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Hopelessly Human
Joined: 03 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:30 am Post subject: Re: Good news for Short Story Lovers |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| I was at the Jamshil Kyobo last Friday and hit the jackpot. The 2007 edition of Great American Short Stories is in. This one has a new series editor and the guest editor is Stephen King . . . |
On a side note: I was in Bandi and Luni's today and I read the introduction by Stephen King. The book store in Florida he was talking about is the one I worked in for 5 years before I came to Asia. It was his favorite as he mentioned, he was in there at least once a week. And he did peruse the magazine stand for those hard to find literature mags. He was exagerating about having to walk through all those other sections to get to the magazines though. But he was making a point.
I was in charge of the front table he talked about. That was a clear dis on James Patterson and Nora Roberts. But he did include himself in that dis.
He's a pretty cool guy. Seems down to Earth. He engages in funny banter with the cashiers and stuff. And whenever he has a new book out and he comes to our store to shop, he first goes to the shelf, and/or table, and signs all of the copies of his latest book. I have a few signed first editions. Hopefully they'll be worth something some day.
I might be going back to work there in February when my contract here is up. Hopefully he keeps writing, and coming to the store. I remember when From A Buick 8 (I think it was that one) came out, there was a lot of media hype about it being the last book he would ever write. I thought I had gold in my hands, two signed first edition hard covers of Stephen King's last novel ever! About 5 or 6 books later, some of which I wasn't there for . . . Oh well.
Okay, I know I'm guilty of gratuitous name dropping. But after I saw the book today and read the intro, I remembered this thread and had to write about it. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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Nothing at all wrong with a little gratuitous name dropping among friends. Actually, I thought just SuperFly and I were the only two interested in this topic. While I'm not really a fan of Stephen King, I've always thought he must be pretty cool since he plays in a rock band with Dave Berry and Amy Tan.
I have added The Best American Travel Writing (2003) Ian Frazier to my collection. I thought the selections were uneven. 'A Cup of Cuban Coffee' (looking for good coffee in Cuba), 'The Forest Primeval (hiking through the Central African Republic) and 'What Happened to Uncle Shmiel' (visiting the ancestral home in Ukraine) were outstanding.
I'm about 2/3's of the way through Paul Theroux's 2001 issue of the series. Many more good selections than clunkers. Russel Banks' "Fox and Whale, Priest and Angel' (about climbing Aconcagua) was terrific.
In both, I've come across selections that I think could have been included in the Essay series rather than the Travel series. |
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