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If you love, I mean love, you some short stories, then you've got to read this! It's a collection of short stories selected by established writers at the time of this book's printing. It first caught my attention when I learned it was being used as an ad hoc textbook for the undergraduate creative writing students at Iowa University. My thinking was, "Hey, good enough for the Iowa Workshop, good enough for me."

And it was! This collection really speaks to what the short story form is capable of. Perhaps you've read a short story in a recent popular magazine and thought...mmmeeeh, okay, I guess. These aren't those kinds of short stories. You read these and then you put your socks back on. But keep in mind, they're, at times, challenging in theme, structure and vocabulary.

My favorite is Guy de Maupassant by Isaac Babel. This short story epitomizes the absolute frenzy and awkwardness of the libido of a male intellecutal better and in fewer pages than anything I've read. The Aleph is a close second and In the Penal Colony...oh, don't get me started.

Found on WorldCat while searching for Borges' short story The Aleph.Checked out a library copy and had it just long enough to read the Aleph story - which was amazing. The whole book seems like a really clever idea for an anthology -- well-known contemporary writers select and introduce a short story that influenced them. Oscar Hijuelos introduced The Aleph as the story that made him want to be a writer. There are many other great writers represented in the collection as both selected and selectors. I hope to get my hands on a copy of this book again someday and read many more of the stories.