Going Up

Change of pace, reading-wise.

This week I’m reading a collection of short stories by a master of the genre, Raymond Carver. It’s called Where I’m Calling From.

It’s published by Vintage Contemporaries, a series of books that dominate my library. I used to read these books by the armful back in the 80’s and 90’s.

Since the book is carved into short stories, I’m thinking it will give me more time to pause and reflect than a long, linear narrative might. We’ll see. Sometimes it takes me longer to read a 200-page book than a 500 pager.

BTW, did I say that I rode the elevator, in my work building the other week with James Frey, he of A Million Little Pieces? (Penguin Publishing shares the building with us.)

I didn’t say anything, but he got off on the same floor I did once-upon-a-time a few years ago--before the publishing industry began to whither.

If I had known then that I'd end up today taking the same elevator higher, I might have drowned myself in a swamp. Would have saved us all a touch of ache.

Double protection.