Thin Books
Two of the three books that most influenced my mindset were thin.
One was Lonely Man, Lonely God.
The other thin book was The Pleasure- Pain Principal.
The fat book was entitled The Open and Closed Mind.
Strange- I don’t remember who wrote any of them. No matter, you wouldn’t want to grow up to be me, would you?
One thin book I would highly recommend would be The Fall of Rome by R.A. Lafferty. Gibbon was good but Rome never fell until it was written so by Lafferty.
One thin novel that is worth reading but much neglected by those who admire Hemingway is Across the River and into the Trees
In this little book Little Ernie Hemingway is at his best- for a while- but like many a ner-do-well salesman, he fails to close.
It seems that the american novel reading public doesn’t cotton to skinny books much. Remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull of the seventies, the best selling book that everybody read and no one knew why? Maybe that book ruined the chances for a future market.
I think the others on this thread are right. Read the best short stories. I'll tell what stories I think best on a post in a minute.
