My attention span has been about this –><– long lately. Between the brain-melting summer heat, a full plate of day-job craziness, and massing forces for a final assault on my current manuscript, I’m tapped. My bedside table is piled high with novels that bristle with bookmarks, but I’m having trouble making through a story arc that’s longer than a comic strip. Amidst the daily ADD fiesta, I (finally!) found something blog-worthy enough to carve out a few minutes to write about it. Well, two somethings, actually…

My first discovery was the free Amazon Kindle Reader for iPhone—or, in my case, iPod Touch.  Huge props to Nathan for pointing out this little gem. Using this app, I can download e-books from Amazon and be reading them in the time it takes you to say evilmonopolytakingovertheworld. In turn, this led me to my second aha moment of the summer.

I’m having breakfast a couple of Sundays ago while browsing the book review pages of the Sunday Oregonian, when I came across a review of Where the Money Went, a book of short stories by Kevin Canty. The reviewer positively glowed about it, citing Canty’s gorgeous imagery and nimble turns of phrase, two things that light my fire.

Normally, when I read a good review, I’ll log onto my local library’s web site and put it on hold. Because said book has just gotten good press, I’m inevitably hold number 278 on 3 copies, guaranteeing that by the time I actually lay my hands on it, I’ll have forgotten why I was so hot to read it in the first place. This particular Sunday I was feeling impulsive, so I went directly to Amazon instead and ordered the Kindle version of the book for around $10 (give or take). Then I switched on my iPod, and lo and behold, it was there waiting for me. The whole process, from table to computer to reading, took less than a minute. If you’re chronically impulsive, watch out; you could easily lay waste to your account with this system.

And oh, the writing! I wasn’t familiar with Kevin Canty before this, but you can bet I’ll be looking for more of his work now. The best parallel I can draw is with Raymond Carver, whose short stories I fell upon last summer with a vengeance. Kevin’s stories feel similar in all the right ways—gritty, sad, funny, and familiar. I’m enjoying them immensely. True to their genre, they’re also short, a big plus right now.

So, hats off to Kevin Canty for the amazing words, to the Oregonian for crowing about them, and to Amazon for making them so frighteningly easy to get hold of.