Speaking Volumes

                  
 
Carol’s latest creative book display had us standing on tables to string a clothesline from the ceiling tiles. And they’re not pants. They’re shorts. For short stories – get it!
 
Anyways, when Carol finally got her shorts hung, she asked me if I wanted to add any short story collections to her display.  I guess I never really thought about it before, but I do read a LOT of short stories.
 
Here are a few of my favorites that I added to her display…

   
 
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
I'm a huge David (and Amy) Sedaris fan. His latest book of short stories and essays is just as hilarious and twisted as you would expect from him. I read this one a while back, but I can still remember laughing out loud at the stories about David's  'stop smoking' trip to Japan.

  

Pretty Monsters, by Kelly Link
The cover is what initially attracted me to this book, and I'm glad it did! The short stories in this collection are very strange, often dark, and sometimes even funny, all geared to YA readers.

  

The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Edited by Dave Eggers
I brought this little gem with me on my recent trip to Japan, and the short stories, essays, and articles were perfect for those rare moments when I had a chance to read.
 
While writing this post I was googling around and came upon an interesting article about short stories from the Dallas Morning News, written by A.O. Scott a movie critic for The New York Times.  In it he suggests that short stories may become more popular than ever, pointing to popularity of other 'short' writing like blogging and tweeting. He also puts forward this interesting thought…
 
Just as “the iPod has killed the album, so the Kindle might, in time, spur a revival of the short story. If you can buy a single song for a dollar, why wouldn’t you spend that much on a handy, compact package of character, incident and linguistic invention?”
 
Hmm…a dollar per downloaded story.  The whole idea opens up the possibility of no-name writers making their work available to Kindle users, in the same way musicians can put their stuff up on iTunes. What do you think?