The Art of the Short Story is such a joy to read.

Submitted by StrawberryFields_ t3_118zgg1 in books

I recently got a copy of The Art of the Short Story after looking for short story anthology recommendations on Reddit. It includes almost all of the most iconic short stories that I can think of and some commentary from the author afterwards.

I've begun to develop an appreciation for the short story medium especially as someone with attention issues. The stories I've been reading have been quite powerful and memorable despite having much less space than a novel to develop their narrative. They are also short bursts of good writing to read before I go to bed each night -- almost like reading a fairytale or a fable.

My only complaint would be the small-ish font size, which I'm not used to after months of reading on my Kindle.

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yeadoge t1_j9n8p8h wrote

You might like A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. It follows a similar cadence where you read a story and then it's broken down for you by someone used to teaching that particular story to students. I personally loved it

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striker7 t1_j9nli90 wrote

Replying to yeadoge (#1,933,245)

I loved it too! Worth noting that it's Russian short stories; personally I love them but they're not everyone's thing.

But considering I'll never be in the creative writing program at Syracuse, this is the closest I'll get to sitting in on a class with Professor Saunders.

The audio book is great with narration by the likes of Nick Offerman, Glenn Close, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, and BD Wong.

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striker7 t1_j9nm7fs wrote

About a decade ago I randomly picked up One More Thing by BJ Novak, which was hilarious and got me into the form of short stories. I immediately Googled something like "best short story writer" and was introduced to Anton Chekhov, which was the second collection I read, and a pretty funny leap from one to another in retrospect.

Since then I've read countless stories and collections. I'm always reading a novel or two as well, but short fiction is my favorite.

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