Five Reasons Why I Love Collections of Short Stories

I was recently sorting through my bookshelf and I realised I have built up quite a few collections of short stories/ anthologies. I feel like I don’t hear about them very often so I thought I’d share my five favourite things about short story collections!

1. The variety

This is the most obvious point, but the variety of stories in these collections is such a treat to read. I always love looking at the table of contents and picking a story that fits my mood at that moment. It just feels so freeing to have so many fun options to choose from!

2. They are great for commutes

In my opinion short stories are the best reading option for shorter commutes. My daily commute is about 20 minutes by bus and I find that it isn’t enough time to fully immerse myself into a traditional book. When I try and read novels I often have to stop in the middle of a chapter and I usually  I forget key plot points. But short stories are just about perfect for this time period, I often have enough time to read and enjoy a story fully!

3. You get to discover great new authors!

I have found so many new authors that I love through anthologies! I tend to read horror anthologies and it is such a nice introduction to an authors work! You get a wonderful story  in a genre you know you enjoy and the opportunity to follow up with more if you liked their style, it’s really the best of both worlds!

4. They are great for reading in-between classes

In my undergrad there were so many times when my professor would finish class early and I’d be so excited to leave class, only to realise I had 20 minutes to get to my next class. There isn’t much that you can do in that amount of time, so I’d often just browse Instagram or reddit. Until I realised that  this could be optimal reading time! I ended up reading several books in this free time and I really enjoyed it!

5. They are just so fun to read!

This is more of a personal opinion and I’m not sure how true it is, but I often think that when authors are writing short stories they are able to be a bit more fun and silly than compared to a novel. I am really thinking of Ray Bradbury’s work here. Both of his books The Martian Chronicles and The October Country are just so absurd and silly it is just wonderful reading experience. I laughed out loud so many times and was smiling through most of theses books!  I really got the sense that he was writing exactly what he wanted, and it is delightful!

That’s it, those are some of the reasons I love collections of short stories! As I mentioned some specific books here I thought I’d also share a few of my favourite short stories!

Some of my favourites are:

20th Century Ghosts

I really love Joe Hill’s writing and there are some wonderfully spooky stories in here!

Tales of Witchcraft

I bought  this book at a local market second hand and I really loved all the stories. It just has such a wide variety of different interpretations of witchy stories that are so fun to read!

The Martian Chronicles

If you like silly fantasy/ science fiction you need to read this book. It is absolutely hilarious and such a great reading experience!

The October Country

If you love autumn and Halloween you will love this book! I am very excited to re-read this book again once fall begins!

If you also love short stories I’d love to hear why! I’d also love to read more short stories so if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them!