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Do you have any favorite anthologies?
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I have a subscription to Granta, and always enjoy that magazine a lot.
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I like this magazine; I think it's called Gourmet? I read it once sitting for a hair appointment and while all the stories were loosely based on food, each was such an amazingly told tale I read it from cover to cover.
Favorite short story collections by a single author are easily Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman. Both write wonderful, excellent shorts.
"101 Damnations" stayed in my bathroom for a while. Always a good chuckle.
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I actually like Gaiman's short works better than his novels!
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I picked up Zoetrope once. That was interesting. And I've enjoyed the yearly Best of... installments. Some of them are quite good.
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I actually do enjoy reading short story collections by a single author - if I like the author's writing. Examples are Charles Baxter, Ellen Gilchrist, Alice Munro, Tim Gatreaux, Antonya Nelson...I can read and reread these collections endlessly. Their stories sometimes contain reappearing characters - but not always - and I do enjoy seeing this development.
I love Granta - it is a motherload for new authors for me. I especially enjoy their "best of new young" issues. I find many new authors that way. I read Zoetrope once, and found it offputting. Maybe it was just the issue I read but it was too chic and ambiguously "hip" for me. I will try it again though as one issue is not sufficient to make a decision on like or dislike.
I enjoy the annual best ofs" - even when I don't like most of the selections! Some years are wonderful for me, others just don't do it. Right now I am reading the best of southern writers which is a perrenial favorite of mine.
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Dipping in and out is best. A diet of only strawberries, no matter how delicious, would repulse the finest palette.
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It's a tough call. Often I find that when I'm reading an author's collected works I want variation. Of course, being ever-so-fickle, when I read a mixed anthology I find one or two stories I love and feel compelled to read everything that those authors have written. I guess we can never be satisfied :)
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Agreed. Some author's work by nature of coming out of the same mind will be repetitive. It's the job of a good editor though to pick out gems that will somehow remain congruent while still adding the different degrees of separation that the reader's mind will want to follow.
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benjap
- Friday, September 7 2007
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My take on it depends on what I'm looking for in anthology reading. There are certain mystery or western writers that I look seriously at any collection that has one of their stories in it. If someone takes time to collect several of one of these writers into a single collection, I'd be interested. Crippen and Landru is a great independent press that does this (http://www.crippenlandru.com/).
On the other hand, I love to investigate writers who are new to me. Collections are a great way to do this. Plus, if the story's not too interesting, you don't have to give it more than 20-50 pages, as you would a novel (or even a novella).
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I like them both. If a single author writes a collection which takes the mind in different directions, then in some ways a book of shorts can keep ones attention better than his novels at times.
Anthologies should be created with a narrow subject matter in mind or they lose their effectiveness. If it has not been added already, I'll add an anthology to the group shelf called "Werewolf." I have also reviewed this book if you care to view my remarks.
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same author! if i like a writer, i usually read all their novels and then read the shorts, i find mixed collections to be too uneven, and even if it is just 20 pages, i am turned off if i dont like the writer.
even if it is a writer who only writes shorts, i still wan to read the same author , but except for david sedaris, tom bodet and bailey white, i dont read many modern shorts only writers. i find the best of short stories series to be very disappointing
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It depends. I like short stories, because I enjoy sitting down and being able to read them straight through. I suppose I also enjoy them because i used to teach them to high schoolers, and we had so many interesting discussions. Being forced to really look at them closely helped me appreciate and enjoy them more. That said, sometimes I obsessively become interested in the ideas of a particular writer (Stephen King, TC Boyle, for example), but other times my poor mind is scattered and I want a surprise. Lots of times I have found great enjoyment from anthologies like You've Got To Read This. It's like food, I suppose. Sometimes I crave one particular thing, and I pig out on it. But sometimes I want to snack off the well-stocked buffet.
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So did you get to choose the stories your student's would read for class? What were their favorites? There is another discussion thread here from a highschool teacher who is going to be teaching short stories and she is looking for suggestions - I cannot remember the name of the thread but I will check and get right back!!!
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What your teacher never told you to read.
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Depends the mood i'm in and the author. Reading Amy Hempel's stuff all at once about killed me. It's very good, but a lot to take in at once.I probably would have enjoyed it more had I read bits and pieces first.
On the other hand, I can read TC Boyle and Stephen King short stories straight through. Maybe because, although the stories have similar themes, they have such diverse characters and situations.
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The current issue of GRANTA has in interview with author Richard Ford who was the editor of The Granta Book of the American Short Story published in 1991. He has a new addition coming out this month, The New Granta Book of the American Short Story and the list of authors is stunning! It has more than 40 stories by contemporary short story "greats."
While I too find many anthologies uneven, the authors included in this anthology are too good to be missed.
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@ patteefletcher post on GRANTA,
I am non-US/UK resident, thus i never seen GRANTA, untill when I learnt about it from patteefletcher, i have been searching Richard Ford and his New Granta Book of the American Short Story in the back issues. While surfing the GRANTA's website i found an extract of Nadeem Aslam' God and Me which is so good. The next is the link of this extract http://www.granta.com/extracts/2646. Thanks patteefletcher for letting me know about GRANTA.
I like anthologies or collection of short stories written by differrent authors because there be a chance to taste different styles in one book.
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Mark S
- Saturday, May 10 2008
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Short story books everyone should definitely read at some point:
Dubliners - James Joyce
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Raymond Carver
Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson
Nine Stories - J.D. Salinger
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
...and of course, any good Hemingway collection is required reading. ;)
ps. Alice Munro's collections too!
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I prefer an anthology. I have read collections by a single author and enjoyed but with those, I don't typically read them straight through.
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I would prefere more a book with short stories..I like reading short stories..
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Brooke
- Wednesday, July 23 2008
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I really like books with short stories by one author. I adore Flannery O'Connor's short stories and I have a book of her stories with me wherever I go, basically. It's nice to be able to read through something quickly and still be able to be affected by it, say on a busride or something. I also enjoy anthologies of different authors though, like the book that Dave Eggers edits (Best American Nonrequired Read). I also got a really cool Short Fiction Anthology by Norton for school. Both are good!
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