SHORTS

It was actually warm enough for me to wear shorts on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. I didn't but I could have. After the long winter we've had, that felt very good.

Earlier this week I finished reading Maps and Legends, the new non-fiction collection from Michael Chabon. The essays collected discuss comics, genre fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, his personal history, his own work, and more. I loved it. He reminds me why I want to be a writer and why I should start being one now. It also has an amazing triple-fold cover by Jordan Crane; McSweeney's knows how to produce beautiful books, don't they?

I've finally managed to finish the March 2008 issues of Asimov's and F&SF. Asimov's was solid with no stories standing out or the opposite (though I didn't quite follow the Steven Utley). I liked F&SF a lot more - a bunch of good stories, my favorite of which is probably Nancy Springer's "Rumple What?," which is a fresh take on that old story.

I'm going to stay on my short story kick for the forseeable future too; my next 2 books are new collections from Kevin Brockmeier and Steven Millhauser. Can't wait.