The holiday season just passed. Well… at least Christmas did. Anyways, every year during this time I always get recommended a bunch of anthologies full of different holiday short stories to read. Which brings up the question: do you read anthologies?
Personally, I don’t really read them. And when I do, I usually won’t read the whole collection. Why? Well, here are some of the reasons why I read anthologies and why I don’t really like to.
Disjointedness
In the rare times I do read anthologies I always find them somewhat disjointed (just like this post might seem like, sorry). It’s not really the fault of the authors or the editors, it’s just how it is, I guess. That’s what happens when you put a bunch of stories together in one book when they don’t have much in common besides a theme, like the holidays or a genre like supernatural. I just find it difficult to jump from one story to the next. Which means sometimes it takes me longer to finish an anthology (when I do finish one at least…) than it does for me to finish a regular book the same size. o.O
Short Stories!
On the bright side anthologies are collections of SHORT STORIES. And who doesn’t like a good short story? They’re, well, they’re short. Perfect when you don’t have the time to read a full length novel but still want to read something. I have to deal with the pain of going to high school and often find that I have less time to read then I would like. Reading short stories are like a compromise of some sort.
Continuation
Usually when I do read anthologies it’s for a particular story (or author). And I’m terribly guilty of not finishing the anthology after I mange to feast my eyes on the story I wanted to read. Sadly, I’m not kidding when I say I have spend tons of time hunting for an anthology (and persuading my YA librarian to buy it for the library) only to only read one story. I’m sorry! I just love reading short stories that give you more insight about characters in a series you love so much that I’ll only read one story in the whole anthology. Sue me! On second thought, please don’t, my mommy will kill me if you do.
Too Short
Okay so this story doesn’t really have to deal with anthologies as much as it has to deal with short stories. I don’t really know how anthologies are put together (is there like a word limit or something?) so maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. But don’t you just hate it when you read a short story and wish it was a full length book instead. I hate, hate, hate it when I read a short story that is better off being a whole novel. And the problem with that is that most of the times when I wish stories are expanded is when I feel like details were left out and that there was a word limit.
Cliche
Do you wanna know why I don’t usually read holiday anthologies? It’s because of this one word. Cliches. They are already plentiful in full length holiday novels, but I find that are even more of them in a holiday anthology. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. There is only so much I can take…
On a totally unrelated note, can you believe that this will be the last Investigated post of the year? It feels like 2014 flew by so fast!
What about you?
Do you like reading anthologies or do you hate them?
I find anthologies odd. Most of the time I’m only familiar with one of the stories, so the others make little sense to me. So I tend not to read them heh.
I have this problem too with short stories that have to do with series. That’s probably why I’ll only end up reading one story out of twenty…
Thanks for stopping by Julie! 😀
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I do like anthologies but I don’t often read them. To me, they are the perfect bubble bath book because there is a defined start and stop point, which helps to prevent over-soaking 😀