Who among us knew that Jessamyn, vaunted second banana at MetaFilter, had a personal website that includes a ton of republished-with-permission Barthelme stories and essays? I sure didn't, not until LinkFilter told me anyway.

Since the first Barthelme story I read in Mary Grimm's fiction class at good old Case Western Reserve Purple Monkey Dishwasher University, Barthelme has been a tremendous influence on me. He's up there with Vonnegut and Calvino on the list of writers who completely changed the way I read, think, and especially write.

I sometimes think that if he hadn't shown me the endless possibility of the short story, I'd surely be writing novels by now.

Linkfilter recommends that you read "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby." I agree. I'd second that suggestion with Bathelme classics like "Me and Miss Mandible," "The School," "The Balloon," "City of Churches," and absolutely, absolutely "The Glass Mountain."

To read my other favorite Barthelme stories, however -- "Sentence," "The Temptation of St. Anthony," and "Concerning the Bodyguard" -- you'll have to buy Forty Stories.

Then you should buy Sixty Stories.