Going Back to Short Stories

Having just plodded through two interminably long and incredibly ponderous books (Stephen King's Under the Dome and Christopher Paolini's Brisingr), I think I'll take some time off from novels and return to my old favorite: the short story. I possess a paperback collection of two different "year's best" series of science fiction short stories that ranges from 1939 through 1989. Also, I have many other collections and anthologies to draw upon, including collected works of Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Cyril Kornbluth, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, William Tenn, Harlan Ellison, and Sherry Jackson, among many others.

There is no reason for me to get stuck in a "bad" novel, but I do so anyway. I wonder whether anyone else has suffered, as I have, through the experience of subjugating themselves to a bad story with lousy characters that are almost impossible to sympathize with, accompanied by massive overanalysis of every dinky event and thought, just because they feel somehow obligated to follow through their mistake in picking out said novel, all the way to its miserable end.

I obviously like Stephen King and I feel Paolini has a lot of talent, but I wonder whether both couldn't do with a little more honest criticism of their writing from trusted sources before they are published. I especially feel this about Paolini, who evaded the usual struggle of an aspiring writer to be published through the good fortune of growing up within a publishing family. Maybe, though, his writing ultimately suffered as he tends to overdwell on everything until I, the reader, am about ready to toss the book out of the window in frustration.

Short stories are different. You can't mess around with short fiction; space is at premium in this form, which has been perfected through thousands of stories appearing over the past decades in various popular magazines and pulp publications. You have to really be sharp to be good at writing short stories, and they often stick with me for a much longer time after I have read them. I also tend to reread my favorite short stories, something I very rarely do with novels.

Where to start? I may just close my eyes and pick a book at random off the shelf: I know I can't go wrong with whatever I pick!