7. Read (at least) 25 books.

I hit 25 books read since turning 25, last week.  I wasn't really worried about meeting this goal.  I have been trying to read collections of short stories the last couple months, as I work to knit my own together.

Dogfight: And Other Stories is a beautiful collection.  The blurb on the front cover says, "Stories cut like gems from American family life" (Los Angeles Times) and even a few stories in it wasn't hard to where that comparison came from.  Though each story was contained, they felt small, as if dug from a mine of similar stories.  The characters were similar, their thoughts always wondering slightly farther than the realities of their own lives.

One of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for writing a short story is "Every sentence must do one of two things- reveal character or advance the action."  It's a rule that Knight has mastered, seemingly effortlessly.

This is the kind of book that makes me want to strive as a writer.  The kind of book I know I'll dip back into.  The kind of book I'd recommend to most everyone, despite my vague and short review.

Comments

[Jessie Carty]

I love that Vonnegut quote, although I found I wasn't a fan of his actual writing. I know. Did I just say blasphemy? :)