I love New Yorker stories. However, up until now, I’ve been hit or miss about reading them. I don’t subscribe to the magazine, but I read the stories online and at the library or when they come out in Best American or O’Henry and in author’s collections. So I’ve decided I’m going to try to read them all going back a couple of decades. It would be great to read them all to 1950, though that’s pretty ambitious.
I don’t have the time to dedicate to hanging out in the library to accomplish it, so I’ve subscribed to the digital edition. Let me just say: What a boon to people like me! I have a very specific reason to get it, I don’t want all that paper (not to mention the green aspect of it), and it’s inexpensive. I can access it pretty much anywhere I go. It’s interface is so functional and has all the things I need.
One of the reasons I’m doing it ~ other than for pure pleasure ~ is to improve my writing. I continually strive to do better, and this is a great way to do it. Mimicking the greats is an age-old creative learning device, and it’s fun!
The stories also do what great stories do, in that they spark ideas for my stories. Sometimes it’s content but also structure or style. This morning, I read Janet Frame’s “Gavin Highly,” and since then I’ve been having so much fun on a story about a cranky old hired hand and a girl who are working together one summer. Mine will be nothing like the wonderful childlike story "Gavin Highly," but the inspiration is more than enough.
What I’m Reading Today: Well, New Yorker stories, of course!
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