A year ago, I had a series of five notes on one-night reads.
I’m just now exploring Jonathan Gibbs’s site “A Personal Anthology.” It features a weekly newsletter, in which he asks someone what they would choose if they were asked to pick 12 short stories for an anthology. Here’s his introduction to the challenge:
The task is to pick and introduce a dozen stories. These might be their personal favourites, or their undisputed list of the greatest ever; they might make a themed collection, or they might be a literary version of Desert Island Discs: twelve stories that have marked them as readers, and mark their journey through life.
I’ve been thinking about the works we read time and again, and how those works shape us.
Readers, if you’d send me a list I’d be grateful. I’m genuinely curious. I’m also always on the prowl for a good story.
• Sources: Jonathan Gibbs’s site is at https://apersonalanthology.com/. As you might guess from the spelling, he’s based in the United Kingdom. I got a quick introduction here: https://tinycamels.wordpress.com/about/. My notes on one-night reads were published Oct. 29 through Nov. 2, 2021. The one on short stories was No. 4 in the series (Nov. 1, 2021).
Do you have a favorite short story? What is it?
ReplyDeleteWilla Cather: the three stories collected as Obscure Destinies. James Joyce: “Eveline,” “A Painful Case,” “The Dead.” Three by Franz Kafka and three by Alice Munro, reader’s choice.
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