A strong collection that would be appreciated both by people who love short stories and those who love cinema. Each of the short stories in the collection was the inspiration for a movie - the book discusses how they were adapted for the screen and also (the best part for me) has the full text of each story.

The highlights for me were: Auggie Wren's Christmas Story (by Paul Auster), Babylon Revisited (by F. Scott Fitzgerald), The Basement Room (by Graham Greene), The Harvey Pekar Name Story (by Harvey Pekar and R. Crumb), Killings (by Andre Dubus), My Friend Flicka (by Mary O'Hara), A Reputation (by Richard Edward Connell), The Sentinel (by Arthur C. Clarke), The Swimmer (by John Cheever), Tomorrow (by William Faulkner), and Your Arkansas Traveler (by Budd Schulberg).

I write about these stories on my blog, here: http://thesilloftheworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-short-fiction-3-stories-from....

(#22 in the 2005 Book Challenge)

This was great, and an impulse buy at the bookstore. I don't read enough short stories, I like short stories and all, but there's something about them that makes me think of school. It's a nagging feeling that immediately after finishing a short story, some random person is going to turn to me on the subway and give me a quiz, where I will be asked to identify a theme, and possibly some symbolism. Some of these I had read before, but a lot of them were new to me. It's a great collection, lots of different genres represented -- everything from "Bringing Up Baby" to "Las babas del diablo" (which became Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni who is NOT FRENCH). I was also pleased to find Faulkner's "Tomorrow," which I hadn't read previously. A little creeped out by "The Spurs," the basis for the cult classic Freaks -- this story seemed so familiar, I think I might have read it in junior high. Did I have any teachers that twisted?

Grade: A
Recommended: Excellent way to collect a bunch of short stories, and a nice thick book so it's good reading that one could pick up and put down at will. This would be especially nice for vacation or other times where you are reading in small chunks of time and not all at once. ( )