Pick-a-Shelf discussion

It doesn't have to be short, nor does it have to be only one, but give us an idea of what is interesting, fun, or just plain great about the Short Story Collections that you are reading. Even if they are horrible, leave a quote and share the pain.

Here's a quote from Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. It was an interesting concept to have a man's tattoo's become active at night to tell their story. This is a quote from the tattooed man:

"Sometimes at night I can feel them, the pictures, like ants, crawling on my skin. Then I know they're doing what they have to do. I never look at them any more. I just try to rest. I don't sleep much. Don't you look at them either. I warn you. Turn the other way when you sleep."

LynnB wrote: "Here's a quote from Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. It was an interesting concept to have a man's tattoo's become active at night to tell their story. This is a quote from the t..."

Lynn - I remember reading this story a long time ago, and thinking about how creepy it was. Definitely an interesting concept.

from Shift Omnibus,

Because I have to get this off my chest somehow, these quotes are examples of punctuation errors I found in this otherwise wonderful book. I can't stand it when authors can't be bothered to edit carefully. (And I don't remember finding such errors in his first omnibus book, so this may mean he's now taking us readers for granted and getting sloppy.) I know, spell- and grammar-check make this harder. My cell phone keeps "correct"ing "its" to "it's," regardless of which it should be; but if a writer wants to be taken serious, it's his responsibility to catch those and fix them. (yes, "it's," properly used in this case, because it's a contraction)

p. 6: "Donald stifled a smile, fearful it's reflection would be caught ..." [should be "its," the possessive]

p. 226:"It featured a drawing of a crow perched in an impossibly large tree, it's wings spread as if ..." [should be "its," the possessive]

And can't he tell when his pronouns are subjects and when they're objects?

p. 303: "... but they both knew he and Rodney from the Nest." [should be "him"]

p. 472: "Thoughts of her led to thoughts of she and Mick having children together." [should be "her" -- "having" is not a verb for which "she" is a subject, but a participle which modifies "her and Mick," the object of the pronoun "of."]

I can forgive the use of "receding" which should've been "receded" on p. 426. But the rest really gall me.

OK. I'm done with my soap box now. Except for the grammatical errors, I loved the book. I don't think I'd really classify its three parts as short stories (They're too long), but someone obviously did.

from How to Breathe Underwater, a short quote from a short story:

"'The smoothest way is sometimes full of stones,' he says." (p. 108)

from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, p. 47:

"Speaking up, Eldon Rosen said hoarsely, "We selected her as your first subject. She may be an android. We're hoping you can tell." He seated himself in a series of clumsy motions, got out a cigarette, lit it, and fixedly watched."