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Anthologies are aight. I have a great Borges short story anthology that I swiped from my stepdad so I could talk to Symbols about stuff.
Often, though, I find that anthologies are best for either introductory or mega-fan/completist purposes. I am a big fan of literary SF mindblower Gene Wolfe. After I read all of his novels, I felt like a part of mylife had ended, but my girlfriend bought me a copy of his "Book of Days," a collection of letters, essays, rare or out of print short stories, and poems, and it was like getting a big old dose of methadone in the middle of a heroin withdrawal. Not quite the right medicine, but it helped the symptoms quite a bit. I've been cherry-picking segments from that book and reading one every week or so to extend the "halflife" of the book, as I try to adjust to life without new Gene Wolfe. (He's still writing new stuff every once in a while, but it's been gradually decreasing in quality since the early '00s.)
The Borges anthology served as an excellent introduction though. So, yeah... beginners and experts are best served by the anthology.
Weren't we talking about Hemingway though? I would not start on Hemingway an anthology.
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