Okay, I love the internet: Hot Guys Reading Books.

yum

Oh I love teh interwebs. I've been trying to remember a book that scared the crap out of me as a kid and finally found it: "The Elementals" by Michael McDowell (who also wrote "The Amulet"). I loved those spooky trade paperbacks. Anyone else read it?

Okay, I love the internet: Hot Guys Reading Books.

Heee! I just spent a pleasant few minutes scrolling back a few months. This entry in particular made me smile THHHHHIISS WIDE: [link]

Okay, that tumblr weirds me out. Because there are people taking pictures of strangers and submitting them, and that's odd.

Not that they're all, but some.

and that's odd.

How is that odd? There's a long tradition of street photography. Nobody's running around getting releases signed by everybody they shoot on the street.

So because people do it I should be comfortable with it? Way to go to set a personal barometer.

I am hesitant about taking pictures of strangers, and I would have a minor freakout if I found a picture of myself posted in a blog with commentary and reblogs and likes and the like.

The blogging issue weird me out, although I really love street photographers like Garry Winogrand [link] and Robert Frank [link] So, go figure.

I recently realized that I have a picture from the 2009 Fourth of July parade that's of someone who I've become friends with. However, we didn't know each other at all when I took the picture -- we didn't even meet until some time in 2010. I have the pictures up on Flickr, so I e-mailed her to ask if it was really her and if she wanted me to take the picture down.

She said no big deal; apparently pictures of her (though not mine) from that parade have been all over the internet, including Failblog (as a Win). See, she's part of the local Burning Man community, and they were in the parade, so she grabbed her art bike and joined the parade.

I gotta say, though, it was weird to realize I had a picture of someone who I've become friends with but didn't even know at the time I took the picture.

Back to NYRB, they have a listing for Pilgrim Hawk which looks intriguing, but they note in particular that it is a classic American short novel, comparable to Faulkner's The Bear.

And since I've been on a short novel kick lately I'm curious what short novels are Buffista favorites.

For definition I'll use the standard Science Fiction prize rules for a Novella: 20,000 to 40,000 words. So a slim volume like Billy Budd or Heart of Darkness or Breakfast at Tiffany's. Something that might appear in paperback with a couple short stories to fill out the page count. A book you can read in one setting, probably in a couple hours or less.

My two favorite short novels would be Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West and Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood.

So what do you like in the short form? (Though not as short as a short story.)