I choose this book to read the Bob Leman story. I looked through the offerings and picked some more must reads before I give the book back to library. There is no way I'm reading the whole thing. It's almost 800 pages and 40 stories.

- Stephen King - The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet - 5*
That was fun, I hope to read this one again at some point.
Look at the cover from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1984


- Robert Aickman - Pages from a Young Girl's Journal - DNF - Too much unsaid. I need my stories more clear.

- Thomas Burnett Swann - The Manor of Roses - DNF - or hardly start but it looks like he writes stories I would like so I must not be in the mood. I think it's unfamiliar territory so it felt like work.

- Thomas M. Disch (he wrote The Brave Little Toaster) - Downtown - 2* - Did I see this story as a Twilight Zone episode? I wish more was explained in this too short story.

- Shirley Jackson - One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts - 2.5* - Readable, held my interest. A man set about making everyone happy he met, meanwhile his wife did the opposite. It ended with them saying they were ready to trade roles as if this was their regular routine. On deeper analysis (google searches) "People are capable of choosing to be good or evil - or at least, to act in good or evil ways. They have free will." Maybe I should be concerned with myself for not understanding the intention of this story.

- Jack Vance - Green Magic - DNF - I researched this one too because I know Vance is worthy of some attention. I liked the summary of the story I found on the internet but I really couldn't read the story. My brain and his writing style didn't mesh. If someone is sitting in a truck observing "the vistas of the green realm" and in the next section found sitting at a cocktail bar, I must be given a bit of direction on how he got there or at least some closure to the previous activity. ( )