'The Guy Not Taken' ...

At the beginning of the year, Mercurie challenged me to read one book of fiction per month in 2008 because he thinks we just don't read for pleasure enough anymore.

So far this year, I have not batted 1.000. This month, I started one novel and really loved the first chapter and then got to the second chapter and thought, "Meh." So that's still sitting on my bedside table.

And I tried starting a couple other books, but nothing caught my fancy.

So this month, I pulled Jennifer Weiner's "The Guy Not Taken" off the shelf, a collection of short stories. It felt like less of a commitment.

And that turned out to be true.

Because I only read one of them. I'll read the rest of them eventually. It's nice to read a short story every now and again.

The one I did read, though, reminded me yet again of how much I love Jen's writing because it reads so effortlessly, reads as though the stories just fly out of her head and on to the page.

If you're not familiar with her books, "The Guy Not Taken" is a good introduction. A tasting menu, as it were. The appetizer sampler of her canon.