Time is precious
Reading time even more so. As we become busier and busier, multiple jobs, family and health considerations, sometimes we just don’t have the same time we used to.
Far too often people say they don’t have time to read. And that’s because books not only take time, they take concentration and focus. Not everyone can sit down and read a book straight through. And tucking away what happened the chapter before you placed your bookmark adds to the ever increasing mental load.
Carving out dedicated reading time can feel like a chore when faced with a two inch thick novel.
This is where the short story enters the chat. Shorts have a long literary history made popular in pulp fiction magazines, complete or as serials. But unlike serials, the reading experience comes complete with an ending to the story. No cliff hangers, no waiting for the next chapter/episode. The reading experience occurs in a shorter satisfying amount of time.
And shorts aren’t limited to genre. Many famous writers from literature and pulp fiction got their start being published in magazines around the turn of the previous century. Great Detective Stories launched in 1915 featuring only mysteries and thrillers, and was soon followed by magazines specifically for the sci-fi genre, and for the horror genre.
“Quick reads,” stories that take an hour or so to read are on the rise in popularity. Publishers to this day produce compilations of shorter stories from their more popular authors and up and coming authors they want to promote. And indie authors frequently band together to produce short-term anthologies focused on a common theme.
No matter your preferred genre, you can still find stories that fulfill your reading needs. Short stories are available from sci-fi to mystery to romance, and pretty much everything in between.
Thanks for the history lesson, but where can a reader find quick read, short stories now?
- Check out your favorite author’s website. They typically keep a list of anthologies and collections they have participated in.
- Your local library is your friend, if you are searching via computer database the keywords you want are short stories, and anthologies And don’t be afraid to ask the librarian to help narrow it down in your genre
- Ebook resellers let you specify how much time you want to spend by searching with keywords like 1-hour quick read, 90-minute quick read. And remember to narrow it down further by adding in your genre of choice.