You have vastly more reading time than I do (half hour to an hour three to four days a week, plus presumably the longer works you’re reading) but your approach is interesting and I may try it. I’ve been (very) slowly reading a book of classic Chinese stories (it’s a huge volume, six or seven hundred pages) which I may finish in a few months but something more contemporary to dip into might fit well alongside.

Anyway, thanks for the reply. Much to think about in terms of how I approach short stories.

As much as I like those beautiful, well-crafted, and pretentious Library of America and Everyman’s Library hardcover collections, they do rob me of one of the pleasures of reading a novel: being able to physically feel in your hands when you’re nearing the end of a story. It’s kind of jarring when you finish the last chapter, think there’s more, then turn the page and it’s the first chapter of the next novel.

Or is it just me?

But, just as you say, change and loss, change and loss (a phrase I picked up from Nancy Mairs) is the mantra of the thirties.

Apart from the titles already mentioned, Time Will Darken It is well worth a look. And this post is a reminder to me that They Came Like Swallows is sitting on what is supposedly the “immediate” pile of the TBR. Like Yates, I’m glad to know I have a collection of short stories to look forward to.

Anyway, Maxwell. I haven’t got to the improvisations yet (they are in volume two) but remember the reviews you did of them Trevor. I thought at the time that they were an indication of his devotion to the craft aspect of writing — in many ways, I think these early stories are an indication of that as well. When I get to later stories, I’ll be interested to see if that is still the case.

As for the 2012 KfC short story project, I’m pretty happy with my discipline so far. I’ve tried to get into a routing of having two collections on the go — usually one contemporary, one historical. I try to devote a half-hour to hour (which is usually two stories, sometimes three) three or four days a week. That works out to pretty much collections a month, since I haven’t taken on any “mammoth” ones. If I do, I think I’ll break them into parts of 10-12 stories since that seems to be the “length” of collection that suits me best. Still to come for me are more Clark Blaise and some of the Richler Montreal contemporaries — especially Hugh Hood since he was probably my favorite author when I was in my twenties.

By the way, I agree that many of his short stories seem to feel more like prep-work for his superior novels, but have you gotten to any of Maxwell’s short stories that are more like oldschool fairy tales (I think they’re called “improvisations” and I think I call them “fairy tales” only because they begin with “Once upon a time” and sometimes deal with animals)? I think they’re mostly in the second volume, so if you haven’t you have a treat in store. They are strange and unique little tidbits — like “The Man Who Had No Friends and Didn’t Want Any” — very fun yet sinister.