Sometimes you want to sink into a delicious, deep, absorbing novel. Those all-encompassing reads are perfect for a week’s vacation, when all you have to do is tote the thick volume to the beach and back home. But now that it’s fall, and schedules are less languid and more harried, I find myself re-reading the same page of a novel over and over again, struggling to remember the nuances of the characters. That’s why I think short stories are the perfect solution for a busy reader. They are no less character- or plot-driven; they’re simply shorter and more easily digestible. The volumes are often slim, and you can devour a full story during one leg of your commute or before bed at the end of a long day. And the next day, you can meet all new characters and begin again—no disjointed starting and stopping.
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