How about some great reads with that tie?

If you're like most, you own a stack of "I'm gonna read those one day" books that you will never read. Life apparently has something against you reading Don Quixote cover to cover--or any other tome--be it of doorstop or just hearty sandwich size--that you got all inspired about and decided to make its completion your mission in life. True, most of us don't have "novel time", but that shouldn't mean we give up and banish our inner literati to the island of nothing but Facebook feeds--not that what's-their-faces new bathroom remodel or last night's dinner isn't a page scroller... So if you want to feed your need to read: give short stories a try. As satisfying as any epic, if you get a good one, and in half the time--sometimes less. Here's a famous one to get you started: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." There you go, one down. You've just read Hemingway. Congrats. In six words we get the story of a couple's hope for a child, a child that never came to be, and the couple's attempt to move on. I know, a bit of a downer, but the point is, a complete, impactful story doesn't always have to be so, well, Quixotic. Now that your beak's wet, dunk your face into one or all of the exceptional short stories below. The list is eclectic genre-wise and laid out in no particular order. There's happy ones, sad ones, weird ones, thought-provoking  ones, great ones, all. Happy reading!

Sea Oak by George Saunders

Confessions of an Opium-Seeker by Nick Toshes  (non-fiction)

God of Dark Laughter by Michael Chabon

Premium Harmony by Stephen King

Midnight in Dostoevsky by Don Delillo

The Ways by Colin Barrett

Town of Cats by Haruki Murakami

Chicken Hill by Joy Williams

Smokers by Tobias Wolff 

Black Box by Jennifer Egan

*Entertaining, informing, and inspiring the person behind the tie*