A month or so ago, I read Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran, a tough, compelling short book that contains almost everything I want out of a literary mystery novel.  Then I tore through The Long Goodbye, a mid-to-long Raymond Chandler, and moved on to Brimstone, a longish Preston / Child thriller which I set aside during a hurricane to start David Foster Wallace’s mammoth chaotic sprawl, Infinite Jest.  Reamde, Neal Stephenson’s new technothriller, hits stores this Monday, at the now-typical Stephenson length of “large enough to be classified as a deadly weapon in most states.”

I’m psyched for a new Stephenson book, but I need an intermezzo between it and IJ, something short and economical and fun, something that’s not going to twist my spine as I carry it on the subway.  Based on the progression above, though, if I chose a book for myself it’d probably be about 1200 pages in font so small I’d need a magnifying glass to tell the lines apart, old-school OED style.  I could re-read The Hero and the Crown or The Westing Game or A Night in the Lonesome October, but why not expand my horizons?  Recommend me a good, short book.  I’ll thank you for it.