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Steal Me for Your Stories
Steal Me For Your Stories, the debut collection from New York author Robb Todd, pulls the reader in opposite directions, mixing the tender and vulnerable with the raw and sometimes raunchy, a hard and soft clip to the ears. It’s a journey you want to go on, even though you are not sure what to pack, the weather being completely unpredictable.
Todd’s stories, often set against harsh city backdrops heavy with trash and pigeons, are entwined with raw emotion and texture. Steal Me For Your Stories discovers the extraordinary within the ordinary, and Todd’s prose reminds us there is poetry in all things.
Todd’s stories, often set against harsh city backdrops heavy with trash and pigeons, are entwined with raw emotion and texture. Steal Me For Your Stories discovers the extraordinary within the ordinary, and Todd’s prose reminds us there is poetry in all things.
- GenresShort Stories
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2012
1 person is currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Robb Todd
1 book63 followersI am a writer and editor in New York City. I have lived all over the country, and was lucky enough to live in Hawaii twice. I also lived in Texas twice. And North Carolina twice. Actually, this is my second stop in New York, too, so I guess I just do not do things right the first time — or I like to take a second look.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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October 25, 2011This is the best book I have ever written. By far.
March 1, 2012
A dangerous book. People have been hung for less.
What messes with me most is how it warps distance, between the narrator and other human beings, between you and the "Razor Wire" fence keeping you from the certainly maybe fun things on the other side. Between people and other people. Between you and the writer. But unlike some short story collections that rely on tightening and tightening until everything is so close it explodes, the distance in Steal Me For Your Stories doesn't have a direction. That's what makes it so dangerous. Sometimes you're brought in close, until you can see so much of it you really can't see any of it, and other times you're so far away every human being is an "it" and you've never felt more compassion for anyone. You'll want to do things and you'll want to run from things. Inevitably, it will move you.
Saying what my favorite stories are is like saying which of my children I like best, but since I do not have children, I suppose if I had to pick, if I had to give you stories that would make you want to read all of it I would say "Gracias, Pero Si," "Wanted," "The Faces of Tiny Animals," and the last three but you have to wait to read those because they're best after the first few dozen and everything reads much better in order, and I am saying this even though I am not a man for order. When I finished the book, when I read the very last goddamn line that I still can't reconcile, I had the feeling: Where do we go from here?
You want that feeling.
What messes with me most is how it warps distance, between the narrator and other human beings, between you and the "Razor Wire" fence keeping you from the certainly maybe fun things on the other side. Between people and other people. Between you and the writer. But unlike some short story collections that rely on tightening and tightening until everything is so close it explodes, the distance in Steal Me For Your Stories doesn't have a direction. That's what makes it so dangerous. Sometimes you're brought in close, until you can see so much of it you really can't see any of it, and other times you're so far away every human being is an "it" and you've never felt more compassion for anyone. You'll want to do things and you'll want to run from things. Inevitably, it will move you.
Saying what my favorite stories are is like saying which of my children I like best, but since I do not have children, I suppose if I had to pick, if I had to give you stories that would make you want to read all of it I would say "Gracias, Pero Si," "Wanted," "The Faces of Tiny Animals," and the last three but you have to wait to read those because they're best after the first few dozen and everything reads much better in order, and I am saying this even though I am not a man for order. When I finished the book, when I read the very last goddamn line that I still can't reconcile, I had the feeling: Where do we go from here?
You want that feeling.
November 19, 2017
I read this for the Book Riot Read Harder 2017 challenge bc it was published by a micro press. But this book was definitely not for me.
September 15, 2013
I've been very lax in reviewing this book. I've read it several times over and it's one of the best books I've ever read.
It's short but packs a punch. You can pick this up, open it to virtually any page and away you go.
A whole lot of living takes place in its few pages. Short stories, super-short stories and a few longer reads punctuate this stellar first work. You may not like everything in this gritty book rooted firmly in cruel yet glorious reality, but there is surely something in here that will resonate with your life.
The author has a embarrassment of talent and a preternatural knack for finding beauty in the mundane. You can tell he deeply feels his material. Every word is carefully chosen. Any life experience can give birth to a lesson in love, human nature, fears, insecurity and redemption.
You should get this book. It's smaller than some cell phones but rich in material. You can easily read it on a train, a bus or anytime you have five minutes (sometimes less) to soak in a story. The language is sometimes raw.. It may make you uncomfortable at times, for this is reality, a reality that not everyone is willing to admit -- or face. But the author comes at it from a genuine place and isn't afraid to expose himself to the world, warts and all. You can't ask for more.
Life isn't black and white. And all the shades of gray manifest themselves here. It's a profound thing for those who seek truth.
Disclosure: I had some hand in the editing of some of the stories. I'll get no compensation if you purchase this book. You definitely should. Life is a wonderful, maddening journey. And every moment is lovely, yes?
It's short but packs a punch. You can pick this up, open it to virtually any page and away you go.
A whole lot of living takes place in its few pages. Short stories, super-short stories and a few longer reads punctuate this stellar first work. You may not like everything in this gritty book rooted firmly in cruel yet glorious reality, but there is surely something in here that will resonate with your life.
The author has a embarrassment of talent and a preternatural knack for finding beauty in the mundane. You can tell he deeply feels his material. Every word is carefully chosen. Any life experience can give birth to a lesson in love, human nature, fears, insecurity and redemption.
You should get this book. It's smaller than some cell phones but rich in material. You can easily read it on a train, a bus or anytime you have five minutes (sometimes less) to soak in a story. The language is sometimes raw.. It may make you uncomfortable at times, for this is reality, a reality that not everyone is willing to admit -- or face. But the author comes at it from a genuine place and isn't afraid to expose himself to the world, warts and all. You can't ask for more.
Life isn't black and white. And all the shades of gray manifest themselves here. It's a profound thing for those who seek truth.
Disclosure: I had some hand in the editing of some of the stories. I'll get no compensation if you purchase this book. You definitely should. Life is a wonderful, maddening journey. And every moment is lovely, yes?
March 20, 2012
in my mind i picture robb todd as an anonymous fixture on every new york subway. appearing oblivious, while texting and headphones worn but not on, rarely making eye contact with any other passenger. all the while, deep in his wild writer mind, he is compiling an endless report of happening. seeding out the mundane from the exquisitely mundane. steal me for your stories is robb's translation of the babble coming from the world surrounding him. and he is a master interpreter.
i've been reading robb todd for a while now. he has that something extremely satisfying buried in his prose that is exceptionally genuine in it's effect. in other words, he speaks to my writer parts. robb todd is among the handful of blogger type folk that have inspired me to get back into the process of this craft.
i wanted to pick out my favorites, i had a hard time narrowing it down. but: "quiet the remedies" and "everything i think about when i am trying not to think". and then all the others. thanks robb for your words.
Steal Me for Your Stories
i've been reading robb todd for a while now. he has that something extremely satisfying buried in his prose that is exceptionally genuine in it's effect. in other words, he speaks to my writer parts. robb todd is among the handful of blogger type folk that have inspired me to get back into the process of this craft.
i wanted to pick out my favorites, i had a hard time narrowing it down. but: "quiet the remedies" and "everything i think about when i am trying not to think". and then all the others. thanks robb for your words.
Steal Me for Your Stories
January 15, 2021
Every line in this collection reads like a one-inch punch to the jugular. This might be the gun-to-the-head of book for me.
I've read this book so many times since it's debut and every time I'm like what did I just read. That's a compliment. Streal this book from me if you can't get it on your own. I've two, anyway.
I've read this book so many times since it's debut and every time I'm like what did I just read. That's a compliment. Streal this book from me if you can't get it on your own. I've two, anyway.
February 6, 2016
Love this book, love this style, love this author. Felt transported by the flow of the stories and found myself missing my subway stop a couple of times because of it.
Can't wait to read the next one!
Can't wait to read the next one!
February 13, 2012
1.
Robb Todd is like a Douglas Coupland without the moralizing. His is a life after life after god. Whatever faith Coupland clung to has been stripped away and all we are left with is moment after observed moment strung together with taut highwire. Maybe the faith is now in us, the reader, to traverse those expanses from one thought to another, unaided by such props as balancing poles or unicycles.
2.
RT describes what seems to me to be the quintessential male experience: sex, drinking, smoking marijuana, maybe trying something more illicit, traveling to foreign countries, working a real job. And these stories make me feel like I am abnormal because those aren't things I normally do. And then I think maybe the average male doesn't do those things or RT thinks the average male doesn't because his stories are supposed to be "hardcore" or shocking or something to write about.
And: If your only experience of how other people live or what is normal is from books and movies then you're fucked and need to go out and break a law or two and meet some people. But then that is how most people actually live their lives, quietly boringly daily without examination but with dashes of drama they incite to convince themselves that their lives are as interesting as the books they don't read but the movies they watch or the video games they play or whatever it is that is informing your modern every-day-"American" male.
Or: RT is like William S. Burroughs or Hunter S. Thompson transforming the shitty gritty reality into art by commemorating it on paper.
Then I think: What is normal. Is normal the same thing as status quo or majority rules. What does it mean to live your life with authenticity. And what is RT telling me. Or is he not telling me anything because he doesn't give a shit about me. It is this moment, and to this and every moment he gives himself unto, or his characters do, like it makes a difference - author vs. subject, maker and the made, creator and creation.
3.
Robb Todd doesn't want you to love him unless it is with a fierceness so close to hatred as to be indistinguishable.
Robb Todd is like a Douglas Coupland without the moralizing. His is a life after life after god. Whatever faith Coupland clung to has been stripped away and all we are left with is moment after observed moment strung together with taut highwire. Maybe the faith is now in us, the reader, to traverse those expanses from one thought to another, unaided by such props as balancing poles or unicycles.
2.
RT describes what seems to me to be the quintessential male experience: sex, drinking, smoking marijuana, maybe trying something more illicit, traveling to foreign countries, working a real job. And these stories make me feel like I am abnormal because those aren't things I normally do. And then I think maybe the average male doesn't do those things or RT thinks the average male doesn't because his stories are supposed to be "hardcore" or shocking or something to write about.
And: If your only experience of how other people live or what is normal is from books and movies then you're fucked and need to go out and break a law or two and meet some people. But then that is how most people actually live their lives, quietly boringly daily without examination but with dashes of drama they incite to convince themselves that their lives are as interesting as the books they don't read but the movies they watch or the video games they play or whatever it is that is informing your modern every-day-"American" male.
Or: RT is like William S. Burroughs or Hunter S. Thompson transforming the shitty gritty reality into art by commemorating it on paper.
Then I think: What is normal. Is normal the same thing as status quo or majority rules. What does it mean to live your life with authenticity. And what is RT telling me. Or is he not telling me anything because he doesn't give a shit about me. It is this moment, and to this and every moment he gives himself unto, or his characters do, like it makes a difference - author vs. subject, maker and the made, creator and creation.
3.
Robb Todd doesn't want you to love him unless it is with a fierceness so close to hatred as to be indistinguishable.
January 27, 2016
"Steal Me for Your Stories" is a collection of Todd's short stories, but they aren't just simple short stories which are meant to entertain the readers. They are written in first-person perspective - each of the stories reveals an aspect of the main character's life: sex, parties, drunkenness, relationships etc, and it's not hard to see that they are all from one single character - a young male living in a busy city. You might find the stories a little vulnerable, but they all portrays this crazy world we live in. I'm really glad I won this book and thus have a chance to read it.
April 17, 2012
Steal Me For Your Stories is full of passion, loneliness, and intoxicated philosophy. It is a series of fucked up small moments that may or may not be true — despite the frequent “Hand to God” insistence — but it doesn’t really matter. They feel true, and that’s good enough.
It is 160 perfect little pages, and I’m so glad that the pages lived up to its excellent title.
(My full review can be found on Word Riot.)
It is 160 perfect little pages, and I’m so glad that the pages lived up to its excellent title.
(My full review can be found on Word Riot.)
January 15, 2014
The size and publisher seem to have been the perfect fit for this collection of flash pieces.
They all seem to be non-fiction or creative non-fiction - which is awesome - but the tone I found to be one note, and memorable perhaps on a line-by-line basis.
Overall good to know what's being published by indie publishers today, as a writer keeping an eye of the industry.
They all seem to be non-fiction or creative non-fiction - which is awesome - but the tone I found to be one note, and memorable perhaps on a line-by-line basis.
Overall good to know what's being published by indie publishers today, as a writer keeping an eye of the industry.
February 23, 2012
Robb Todd is by far one of my favorite writers. I've been following him for awhile now and his work wraps up a level of sincerity and humor that is never forced or contrived. This collection is great range of short story gems - can't wait to read more from him!!
April 18, 2012
Robb is one of the most descriptive writers I have ever read, he paint pictures with words like a modern Picasso. When I first received my copy I thought, "What a little fucking book." For such a little fucking book this contains an immense amount of emotion.
April 12, 2012
A kickass, brilliant new voice in fiction. This collection is a necessary read.
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October 30, 2017Read for Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge 2017. Read a book published by a micropress. I read the kindle version not the actual print copy for the sake of time/accessibility. While I was reading this I had Hemingway (albeit Hemingway from Midnight in Paris) in the back of my mind telling me “this is real and true and so it is beautiful. In that Hemingway way.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews