Started a new story

I signed up for a short story writing class with "Gotham Writers" in Manhattan which will begin in mid-April, so I've decided to begin flexing my short story writing muscles.

I began writing a new story yesterday and it's been tough going. I'm really just getting back into writing after a long hiatus. I've been thinking increasingly about it over the past year based on the work I'm doing with a friend - I'm helping him edit his novel.

Meanwhile, I've been 'successfully' procrastinating by reading. Yesterday I read Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and today I'm halfway through Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. So, at least if I'm not actually writing, I'm reading about people who do.

Other than those books, I'm also making my way through Thomas Friedman's excellent work The World is Flat, and I'm truly enjoying it. Friedman has such an easy way with prose, it's no wonder he won the Pulitzer several times. Mr. Friedman makes complex ideas seem obvious and logical, which is quite a feat. I've also noticed that King's On Writing also has this breezy, but very effective, conversational tone.

What books have you read lately? Why did you like it? What didn't you like about it, if anything?