Some of these stories, perhaps many, I've read before; it's hard to be sure because all have a slippery familiarity, so that to read them is to feel as if you're retracing the outlines of maps that you already, somehow, knew. "The Garden of Forking Paths", "The Lottery in Babylon", "The Library of Babel", "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", "Funes, His Memory"; even the titles are redolent with associations. It's a surprise to find so much story in some of these (it's not always so clear how much plot there is) - investigations, searches, journeys, knife fights. But it's the captivating quality of the ideas and how they're woven through which makes them stick. I think my favourite might be "The South", which also seems one of the most straightforwardly symbolic and allegorical - to such an extent that I'm troubled by the sense that there is a deeper layer below I haven't yet plumbed...
