As a reader, I've always had trouble with short stories. Most people I know can happily read several shorts in a sitting and come away happy. Like they've eaten a large buffet and are completely satiated. I've tried and tried, from a huge variety of authors, and it always feels like I've had Chinese food for dinner. It was good, and I know I ate, but I am still hungry.
For me it seems like just when I'm getting into a story it's suddenly, prematurely, over. I flip the page thinking there must be more and disappointed, cheated even, when there isn't.
Personally, I love to getting happily lost in a story. I want to get invested in the characters and learn more about them. Exploring their world is a way to escape my own, not that my life is bad--actually I love my life--but who doesn't want new experiences that are massively different from their own?
But a shorty only gives me a little glimpse while I want to gaze in all the windows and wander its city streets.
I've thought it over and the only thing I can think of is that maybe it's because I read slowly. Others seem to be able to polish off a 400 page novel as quickly as a bottle of Evian, but it takes me the a week or longer to drink that same bottle of water. It's the only reason I can come up with.
It's frustrating, because there are a ton of incredibly well-written shorties out there. Novellas are a hit/miss too. Sometimes the longer ones, The Green Mile comes to mind, are very satisfying and I come away with a new set of friends from a world not my own. But other times...
Am I unique in this regard? Anyone else have this problem? What is it? Shortabookaphobia? Suggestions are welcome.
Carry on.
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