Nine Stories - JD Salinger and other Miscellany

Title: Nine Stories
Author: JD Salinger
Date Finished: Feb 13, 2008
Yearly Count: 8
Pages: 198
Rating: 2.5/5

I feel like I should probably re-read this volume again to better grasp these stories. This slim collection includes:
-A Perfect Day for Bananafish
-Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut
-Just Before the War with the Eskimos
-The Laughing Man
-Down at the Dinghy
-For Esme – with Love and Squalor
-Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
-De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period
-Teddy

The stories are easy to read – all short, the language accessible and smoothly written – but at the end of each story I was left with the feeling of wanting either a decent explanation or at least some closure to the story. I like short stories—and I’ve read a fair amount. I know that a lot finish with a moment of irony or some type of twist, but most of the time I can at least make sense of the ending. With these stories, I always wanted to scream “What???” From searching around the blogosphere, I have found that people seem to really like these short tales, but perhaps I missed something. Please enlighten me!!!

On another note, I am testing out my first audiobook - Eragon. I am very easily distracted. When at work I will start a number of projects so I can work on a little bit here and there otherwise I can’t stay focused on anything. If a book drags on for too long, I tend to get bored and won’t read at all (or will start wishing I could read something new). So, audiobooks is going to be a challenge.

I’m trying out audiobooks during my commute home in the afternoon. I listen to talk radio in the morning, so I’m pretty entertained, but on the way home I feel tortured with commercials and bad songs. The first day went pretty well. I only had to rewind the CD a few times. Yesterday, though, I was VERY distracted. And my sister called and we chatted for a while. Any tips for a first time listener? Joy, at Thoughts of Joy is an avid listener and I’ve been picking up tips from her for a few months now, but how many of you listen to audiobooks? Do you find one genre easier to listen to than another? (I don’t read a lot of fantasy, so I’m having a difficult time hearing descriptions and visualizing rather than reading a description and visualizing).