Should I Read?: Anthologies

Waiting on Wednesday is a great meme by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I usually participate each week but I have a problem. I already have tons of books waiting for me on my TBR mountain and I really don't need to add any new ones to the stack. What I thought that I would start to do on Wednesdays is spotlight something on my stack and look for encouragement from my blogging friends. Help me decided whether or not I should actually move the book(s) to my currently reading list.


I have 24 books that I have tagged as anthologies on my TBR mountain which probably means that I forgot to tag some anthologies. I usually buy them if they have a story by someone I already read but all too often they just get added to the stack and languish waiting for me to find time for them.


Here are six of the 24. Have you read any of them? Which would you move to the top of the stack?

Tied with a Bow with stories by Eileen Wilks, Lora Leigh, Virginia Kantra, and Kimberly Frost.

Down These Strange Streets edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. "In this all-new collection of urban fantasy stories, editors George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois explore the places where mystery waits at the end of every alley and where the things that go bump in the night have something to fear...

Includes stories by New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Diana Gabaldon, Simon R. Green, S. M. Stirling, and Carrie Vaughn, as well as tales by Glen Cook, Bradley Denton, M.L.N. Hanover, Conn Iggulden, Laurie R. King, Joe R. Lansdale, John Maddox Roberts, Steven Saylor, Melinda Snodgrass, and Lisa Tuttle."

The Unquiet with stories by J. D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas.

Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy edited by Eileen Datlow has stories by Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Melissa Marr and Holly Black among others.


Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead edited by Nancy Kilpatrick says "New Vampires have evolved, and they are coming for you! Kelly Armstrong, Tanya Huff and twenty-two other dark fantasy and horror writers come together to re-imagine the future of vampires in this new collection of all-original short fiction – one of the most unusual and original vampire anthologies ever assembled."


Running with the Pack has stories by Laura Anne Gilman, Carrie Vaughn, C. E. Murphy and more.


On a related note, do you read all the stories in an anthology? Or do you pick and choose? How do you feel about anthologies?