Shocking, no?

meara, if you're near L'Enfant Plaza in the near future, check out the Reprint's going-out-of-business sale. Things look pretty picked over now, but you might be able to score a deal or two.

I got two books of short stories for Christmas: one by Dave Eggers and one by Jonathan Lethem. I feel like they're so superficially similar, with their self-conscious coolness and their weird character names, but I just like the Lethem so much better. Eggers I appreciate, but the stories don't make me smile.

Eggers' best work was "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius," even if it did force me to call my memoir, hypothetically, at least "A Triumph Of The Human Spirit" I have a minor literary crush on JL.

I've liked a couple of Eggers's short stories -- "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly," e.g. -- but found his style in A Heartbreaking Work of Blah Blah a bit too much.

Lethem, when he loses me, he really loses me, but when he wins me over, we do pretty well together. I tend to find him stronger with novel-length than with the short story, but I expect that's influenced by his earlier short stories, many of which are incomprehensible.

Whew, Nutty, glad it's not just me..."Fortress of Solitude" knocked me out so I read a bunch of his other things, and the shorts are, in some cases, well-phrased exercises in WTF? But I'm not Sci-Fi Gal so I thought I was, you know, "showing myself" Still bitter that I didn't think of a band called the "Subtle Distinctions" first because I think that is the Best Thing Ever.

I've liked a couple of Eggers's short stories -- "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly,"

I thought that was really good, but I can't say I liked it.

the shorts are, in some cases, well-phrased exercises in WTF?

Dude, Eggers SO MUCH MORE. SO much.

I've never found Lethem terribly self-conscious. Maybe there's more of that sort of thing in his short stories? I haven't read those in a while. If you like his stories I'd think you'd enjoy his novels -- they're definitely a little odd, but they don't come with big banners attached that say "Look! This is daring and experimental! LOOK! Not that I care if you do."

Dude, Eggers SO MUCH MORE. SO much.

I'm with you. I find it difficult to make sense of the phrase "as self-conscious as Eggers" except as a whimsical way to say "something that self-evidently cannot exist in our reality."

I've read a couple of Lethem's novels, and definitely liked the more real-world ones much much better than the more fantastic stuff. But I'm seriously almost as low-brow as a person can get and not get all of her books at the drug store. Some of the short stories in this collection (Men and Cartoons) feel like mostly playing with an idea, but in a way that I can enjoy.

Girl in Landscape is a western in space, if you're into that sort of thing.

In a "Little House on Altair" way.