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To ask other readers questions about , please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Feb 10, Thomas rated it really liked it.
Robertson's project is in danger of becoming gimicky before you've even picked it up. But it doesn't take long to realise the few factors that make a success - James Robertson is a very good writer, he has an intimate knowledge of and passion for stories and how stories come into being, and that this collection works as a whole as well as as individual experiments.
As you go through a year of fascinating little essays, vignettes, fables , word stories written one every day for a year. As you go through a year of fascinating little essays, vignettes, fables and many more, you get a sense of the depth of this ambitious project and a feeling for the writers meticulous attention to details and word counts. The majority of 's entries are seperate stories. Robertson's main preocupations are social woes and observations, politics, folktales and Scottish folklore, old age, death in a very contemplative, playful way and being a writer.
He utilizes farcial scripts, media reportage, Kafkaesque beaurocratic nightmares, historical rewrites, opinion pieces on films and literature as well as actual folk stories. Particular highlights - a very spooky remake of an old ballad called the Demon Lover, the style of which echoes Sussana Clarke fairy tale style.
Insignificance and Sorrow and Love are two wonderful pieces of contemplation on the meaning of life and death. Imagination is a beautiful ode to the power of the mind about a old soldier reliving his traumas. The Man on the Bus is a simple literary encounter about the vanity of a writer and his invisibility. There's no grand statement, no positioning himself as the miner of all stories, Robinson's work is embued with a careful modesty and a complete lack of arrogance, but it is an admirable attempt to bring closure to an immensely varied piece of literature.
He gives us an image to attach to his grand project and shows for the upteenth time his great love of stories and his desire to protect, preserve, retell and reinvent stories in a myriad of ways and forms. Jan 07, JA rated it it was amazing Shelves: I've been reading this book throughout I didn't manage quite every day but I started on the 1st of January and finished just now - on Hogmanay.
It was great to be reading the stories around the same time of year he'd written each of them. It's an excellent book with a wide variety of story styles - beautiful, thought provoking, funny and sad. Nov 29, Tim Love rated it liked it. When I read a Flash collection by a Flash specialist I often wonder about the value of printing the less good pieces, but market forces dictate that prose books can't be too short.
This collection has pieces, the Quality Control put until extra pressure by the constraints that one piece had to be produced each day in , and that the pieces had to be words long i. When I read a poetry collection and sense that there's a sequence of sub-par poems, I often won When I read a Flash collection by a Flash specialist I often wonder about the value of printing the less good pieces, but market forces dictate that prose books can't be too short. When I read a poetry collection and sense that there's a sequence of sub-par poems, I often wonder whether it's me having an off day.
But in this book, it's just as likely that the writer was having an off week or two.
So was I grumpy on Sunday morning, 26th April , or was he off-form in January ? I think he gets into his stride in mid-March 6th, 7th, 10th, 12th, 18th, 28th, 30th. I liked April th; May 7th, 8th, 27th; June 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th my favourite so far , 20th; July 3rd, 6th, 14th, 23rd; Sep 14th, 16th; Nov 9th; Dec 6th, 11th. The trend is towards essay, away from verbally individualistic Points-of-View. All the stories can be read in isolation though August in particular has some story sequences, and there are recurring characters and situations. There's little lingering description.
There is some overt linguistic play - Sep 4th is in something like rhyming couplets - it begins with "I was riding on a Greyhound bus, seeking some place to hide. There may well be other devices that I missed. The reasons for the stories not succeeding are less various.
In stories like on Jun 20th a decent enough idea comes to an innocuous end either because words is too much or too little. And stories like the Jul 16th one simply don't have enough. But if an author paints himself into a corner where stories and even words can't be edited away, what do you expect? Of course, the book could have been shorter, but the format is more a marketing than literary device.
By the end I'm not without admiration of the project as a whole for its width more than its depth, a width than could only have been demonstrated by a thick tome. Events like NaNoWriMo and its kin generate many bodies of work produced by quotas. I doubt whether many of those have as much sustained variety as this, even if there are few peaks. Of the story types I think I liked the "Jack" ones best. They could have been collected into a single booklet. I wonder if all the reviewers are familiar with Flash or [Formalist] micro-fiction. Jul 05, Pamela Scott rated it really liked it Shelves: Writing very short fiction say under words is a particular skill and not everyone can pull it off.
I was impressed by the range and depth of the stories which covered a multitude of themes and subjects. Some stories have the same characters and situations but written in a different way.
My favourite stories were the ones that take their roots from myth. I also really enjoyed the humorous stories about Jack and the Beanstalk and the crazy prophet, Simon Stoblichities. The January stories are slightly weaker than the others as the author finds his feet and goes from strength to strength. My only criticism is that my interest waned during the last quarter of the collection.
Free-writing is a simple method to unleash your words onto the page.
This workshop, led by Cynthia Morris, kickstarts your writing habit with daily prompts. I love this idea! Going to start making room for this habit in my life. Thanks for sharing your experience! I have started reading more short stories, more for learning than entertainment, and because I have a wealth of what I believe are solid ideas. Also, at least the newer ones are available with Kindle Unlimited so that makes it convenient for me. I recently started doing this with personal essays. I had literally never read ONE, but I was trying my hand at writing one, which is insanity. And I agree that reading this stuff makes you a better writer.
I feel like if I can write an essay I can write a book. Question for you though — any short story collections you would recommend?
Want to Read saving…. Christina rated it liked it Feb 18, So I get up, make coffee, and start my day by drinking coffee and reading a short story. The stories hover around sci-fi related topics and the world of tomorrow. I liked April th; May 7th, 8th, 27th; June 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th my favourite so far , 20th; July 3rd, 6th, 14th, 23rd; Sep 14th, 16th; Nov 9th; Dec 6th, 11th. Question for you though — any short story collections you would recommend?
As a side note, it sounds like your introduction into reading personal essays is a lot like my intro to short stories. I was working on writing them and thinking, man this is hard. Struggling at it helped me realize I needed to real a lot more stories to understand the mechanics. As I write flash fiction I tend to read a lot of flash fiction, but short stories and novels work well for me too. Yeah, I think that it is a good habit to have versatile reading habits.
If you write novels, read short stories and flash anyway.
If you write flash, read novels and short stories as well etc. All fiction, regardless of length, is going to have the same core qualities and you never know which will provide you the must instruction. Like you, I have recently started reading one short story per day, in a bid to improve my own fiction writing. Ray Bradbury said that a writer should spend at least a year writing one short story a week before even attempting a novel. Do you know of any free online pubs where I can read a short story a day?
Where do you pull short stories from? Great idea about reading at the start of the day rather than end. Skeleton Crew is my favourite.
And The Raft the best single story on it. Short, not sweet, and leaves you thinking after it. I just started doing this and I really like it for the same reasons. Poe is a good source. I also like J. Michael Gelven, the philosopher, wrote a number of good books, but you could treat each chapter like a short story. The short stories are very good. Gonzalez has written short papers on Plato, which make many of the dialogues come alive. The papers are short and some of the dialogues themselves are, too.
Why writers need to read short stories About a year ago, already an avid novel reader, I resolved to read more short stories. Because short stories offer a condensed version of everything a novel does. Create a daily habit First, set a goal. Enjoy discovering new inspiration It proved to be an easy habit to initiate and an even easier one to maintain. Peter John McLean Peter is a full time freelance writer, amateur novelist, and blogger. Featured resource Free-Write Fling Free-writing is a simple method to unleash your words onto the page.
June 30, at 8: June 30, at July 2, at 2: July 3, at 7: