After a conversation/debate with a friend over the arguments in favour of reading short stories versus longer novels and books, I thought I would write a short blog post on the subject. For people who love to read anyway, whether it's something short or long, it could be that none of this will matter! I am definitely a reader, and a fan of all kinds of reading, but there are times when I find myself much more in the mood to read a short story or a collection of short stories/articles/essays, and maybe this blog post might give someone a little inspiration to try something different.
I think my favourite thing abut reading short stories is how they are often simply little windows into much larger stories. For me, I love to get a glimpse of a character or an idea and then use my imagination to fill in the rest, or always wonder what could happen. It almost becomes a more personal experience in this way, rather than with a longer and more complete novel where a full story is told (and this can also be great, when you just want to know what happens and put your mind at rest!).
Another point in favour of reading short stories is that you can often just read them in one go, which can be a wonderful thing for being completely involved in the story. When reading a longer book, you might have several breaks of days or longer and each time, when coming back to the book, it might be difficult to pick up where you left off, get back into it and remember each character and what's going on. I know this can sometimes be an issue for me. When I read a short story in one go I can be totally lost in that world and those characters and perhaps then I get a richer experience.
Similarly, reading a short story can be perfect, practically speaking, for people who are reading on the go, or who only have a short allotted time for reading in their day; maybe you have a twenty minute train journey to make which is perfect to fit a story in!
Another aspect of reading short stories is how much you can get to know the author and their writing style. When you read a book or collection of short stories by one author, you might see a lot more variety in their writing than when reading only one of their bigger works. I personally love to read short essays, especially those by George Orwell, as each one is so different - has a different theme and deals with a different issue - and I feel like I get a much more colourful impression of Orwell and his writing this way.
So there we are; a couple of reasons why I love to read short stories, and why I really recommend doing so. But then again, I am a blogger - and blog posts in a way are like short stories themselves!Labels: Culture