"The Best of Timothy Gager"--money well spent! I have been a fan of Tim's work for a while now, but he is such a prolific writer, I only have a few of his books in my collection. I snapped up this "Best Of" because I thought it would be a cost-effective way of obtaining a wider range of his material, and I was not disappointed. There is content here from close to a dozen other books he's written--truly an "essential" round-up--but what I was not expecting was all of the brand new material that was also included. It feels like I received a bonus book for free. What I love best about Tim's writing is how accessible it is--it's not pretentious, doesn't try too hard; the words just unfold and wrap themselves around you. I don't have as much time for reading as I would like these days, so I need books that I can pick up and put down without missing a beat. The format of this--a combination of essays, poems, flash fictions, and stories--are perfect for someone like me. I was also happy to see an excerpt included from his latest novel, Joe the Salamander--if you haven't read that one yet, get to it!