Short Story Summer Shelf Safari

[00:00:09]Okay. So, this is loosely stuff I'm possibly reading this month, which is mostly novels.

[00:00:18]Um, except for Hardboiled Dames. That's an anthology.

[00:00:25]Short stories. I think they come from the hardboiled era. So, um, yeah, 1930s, right? So, that could be handy for mystery or for stuff from first half of the 20th century.

[00:00:44]Moving down into the world of future months.

[00:00:51]Uh oh. Well, yes, the uh year's best SF collection. Obviously, that's going to be great. Judith Merrill, she edited lots of stuff like this. Um, and that looks good as well. Um, probably 50s or 60s by the look of it.

[00:01:11]Um, Tales from the Captain's Table.

[00:01:15]tales from. So there's a series of novels uh which are to do with this captain's table sort of magical inn that only captains can go to and this was a anthology of short stories to go with it. So bit of uh bit of double action there with summer of trek and then themed collections like Victorian tales of mystery and detection.

[00:01:45]Again could be good for finding a mystery or a 19th century story. And I think this one is a few creep into the 20th, but basically it's 19th century with a great bunch of writers.

[00:02:02]Um, yeah, based purely on the title, The Case of Euphemia Raphash by MP Shield.

[00:02:12]That could be one to try out.

[00:02:16]So these shelves not very short storyish which is fine apart from the Conan stories has got a single volume collection of Conan but I know I've got another shelf of Conan. So I'll come back to him.

[00:02:35]All this lot, this row here, and then going down, next row down is the Valentine adult fantasy series, which includes some great little collections. So, um, there's some single author ones, for instance, the Lord Dunenes.

[00:03:01]I think there's a couple of novels, but basically he's a short story guy really. So things like Oh, blime me shiny Beyond the Fields We Know.

[00:03:14]Uh could be a good source of a a fantasy short.

[00:03:20]And uh yeah, there's plenty of others.

[00:03:22]I'm worried about these fading though. I might swap them out for something else.

[00:03:27]um not very accessible but further down there's more sword and sorcery really uh so uh yeah collections like Madrid deios flashing swords British collection uh again short stories uh a lovely Bruce Pennington cover on that so really no shortage of weird stuff. In fact, uh much more recent collection that I would recommend partly because of its inclusion of some book authors is this weird frequencies, strange stories by stranger authors.

[00:04:15]So, uh yep, like I say, the fantastic and the savage are probably not a problem.

[00:04:27]Hold the phone. These are collections as well. These are private eye writers of America anthologies.

[00:04:37]So again, it's a modern writers clambering into this corner.

[00:04:44][laughter] Oh dear. You do not you cannot imagine the contortions I'm having to go through to get at these books. So on the left there, you've got a complete collection of Clark Ashton Smith's stories in beautiful hardbacks and uh loads of short stories there. Uh really good. The only thing is I've read them all already. Same goes for Robert E. Howard.

[00:05:12]Uh these collections are probably the the best to get for his writing. Uh some [snorts] are themed around his characters. So you got King Cole as mentioned by Brad Homeschool Library, the Conan, Solomon Kain, and then some other ones are themed a bit more on, you know, these these horror stories and stuff like that. Uh so those look good. Um, also, yeah, Joabrombi at that time when I got all these ones was not doing shorts, but Alen Blackwood, he's a man of the short story.

[00:05:57]And um, [laughter] these collections are good. Uh, you got your ST Jooshi introductions.

[00:06:09]Uh they're chronological and I think if you get all the volumes you would have all his stories now then not just weird but [snorts] all good William Hope Hodgson.

[00:06:26]So this is collected fiction from Hodgson which includes a novel boats of the gather the dust.

[00:06:36]I've said this before, but that's what happens when you get Miss Havsham as your interior decorator.

[00:06:42]Um, yes, Boats of the Glen Carig and other nautical adventures. Imagine, imagine if there was a nautical event they could be going into.

[00:06:53]Uh, House on the Borderland, another novel, but with other stories backing it up. Um, Ghost Pirates, Revenants of the Sea, Night Land is novel. So, yeah, loads of shorts in there, including various seafaring tales and supernaturals.

[00:07:18]Then we've got British Library Tales of the Weird.

[00:07:22]Many, many, many.

[00:07:24]Some are novels, some are two or three long stories, but uh awful lot of shorts in here. So for the for the supernatural, the strange, and the weird, I could delve into these, which would be good. But yeah, themed collections like this, Victorian love stories were one to want a love story andor a Victorian story. There you go.

[00:07:56]Uh, yet more mysteries, detective stories from the Strand Magazine.

[00:08:03]And talking of magazines, I've got lots of them [sighs] and they have lots of short stories in in various genres, so they could be useful.

[00:08:16]And I can just see another absolute master of the short story here, Mr. James [snorts] Mr. James collected ghost stories.

[00:08:32]He can't lose with them.

[00:08:37]Uh, yes. Yet more magazines in desperate need of sorting out. So, I'll pass quickly over those.

[00:08:44]See that box that says Fantasy Master Works on it?

[00:08:48]Fantasy Master Works in there, which were great collections. Um, a lot of them have got shorts in as well. I think I've got one or two that are out. Not going to disturb it. It's a It's chaotic enough as it is.

[00:09:04]Right. Yes, there is a fantasy masterworks book, Not in a Box, Lee Bracket, Seekings of Mars, and Otherworldly Stories. So, lots of SF and uh great stuff here. So, um, yeah, I could be opening that box if I needed to. Uh, another old edition of Mr. James. I think I got this one from home.

[00:09:30]And I expect I could find some short stories here if I really wanted to. New Tomorrow's a collection [snorts] of sort of new wave SF.

[00:09:41]Uh, Vyard Kipling, of course, loads of shorts. And he has a fantasy masterworks collection as well. the top man.

[00:09:50]Oh, me pans.

[00:09:53]I do often talk about annuals, these hardbacks that we have in Britain.

[00:09:59]Um, related to things like comic books.

[00:10:02]Uh, Misty was a sort of um supernatural themed aimed at girls one. And typically an annual would have comic strips in it, but it would also have text stories like the woman and the wolf. Very, very short story could be handy. Girl in the graveyard.

[00:10:29]Something on the stairs is a bit longer.

[00:10:31]Could be good. That and uh being aimed at children, I think there's a child protagonist prompt as well. side were single author collections like this Florence Marriott one. These Leonor books are good and sometimes they have a novel and they back it up with shorts.

[00:10:52]So this one has got the blood of the vampire which was a generally popular read in the Victorian neglected Victorian bestsellers read along. But this also got these seven short stories of the strange and unusual. So, uh, another possibility.

[00:11:13]Here's another annual. Quite an oddity list because it was a tie-in for something that was never made. Although, I think they actually are like uh 50 or 60 years later going to have a Project Sword show. Um, and I did a video about this. I believe it will have the usual mixture of short stories.

[00:11:39]That's a yep that is um sorry usual mixture of cartoon strips and some text stories as well. So, here is a fictional story about this project sword [snorts] post-apocalyptic stuff illustrated with stills from the movie 2001.

[00:12:02][snorts] Then you get back to pseudoactual articles, more cartoons, stuff about the toys. I can't remember if the toys physically existed or not. Um, but um, yeah, [snorts] I could find a story or two in here if I needed to.

[00:12:26]Just a different angle on the Tales of the Weird for no reason.

[00:12:32]And another British Library thing is these kind of hardback uh, very nice collections. They do have a name that for some reason I can never remember. And I've organized the colors.

[00:12:47]I've got one full rainbow and then getting on to another one. So it needs them to publish one in yellow.

[00:12:56]Uh so some of these are themed, some of these are author based. So there's a Sheridan Lefanu collection and there's a dead of summer collection which this being the summer could be a good choice.

[00:13:12]So there's them as well.

[00:13:17]>> [music] >> Okay. Bedroom now. Um, right. So, that's another themed anthology. 19th century short stories by women. Vout ledge anthology.

[00:13:37]Should be good. Uh, strange stories by Irish women.

[00:13:43]Looks good. Uh, not really looked into this.

[00:13:48]Let's see.

[00:13:51]Uh, Lady Gregory. I've heard of her.

[00:13:56]Charlotte Redell. No, she was Irish actually.

[00:14:00]Why you no focus? Okay, that's good. Ah, Rosa Mholland. That's a name that keeps cropping up. Okay, there's another one of these. Leonor collections which has again a novel and uh a short story. Okay, so must be a pretty substantial novel.

[00:14:27]Right, we're getting into stuff I've bought with the short story summer in mind.

[00:14:35]So, Dead Ink Books, I was looking on their website and they publish a short story bundle. Okay. So, you can buy a stack of short story books uh for significant discount. So, it's like they're promoting short stories really, which is good. So without knowing anything about the authors, uh Bojan Louie, Sinking Bell, it's an angry powerful book.

[00:15:11]Uh awardwinning so set in and around Flag Staff, violent collisions of love, cultures, and racism.

[00:15:26]Uh Naomi Booth, Animals at Night.

[00:15:32]She is a master of the short story.

[00:15:38]The man two doors down pursues a secret hobby in the dead of night. This is one of your first discoveries.

[00:15:49]Stories that illuminate nocturnal meetings between humans and other animals.

[00:15:55][snorts] Okay. Lucy Mcnite Hardy Dead Relatives.

[00:16:04]Nice cover.

[00:16:07]Nice color, too. Iris has never left the big house in the country.

[00:16:13]She shares with the mommy with mommy and the servants. When the ladies arrive, she finds she must appease Sorry about this weird lighting. Uh, she finds she must appease her dead relatives. Other stories in this collection explore themes of motherhood, the fragile body, family dynamics, and small town tensions, unusual traditions, and metamorphosis.

[00:16:37]So, I'm basically intending to get into at least one of these one one [clears throat] story from each of these books during the 30 days.

[00:16:46]Uh, mystery lights. Lena Valencia is full of menace and delight.

[00:16:54]Electrifying new voice.

[00:16:56]Some of the best stories I've read in years.

[00:17:00]An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following. Excellent. Right. Okay.

[00:17:10]So, they look interesting. Um, also author collections, more mysteries. This is one of the Indian authors I was looking at. Uh, picture imperfect. Uh I think it's beyond Bakshi and came about from a conversation with a subscriber a copard Adam and even pinch me. Uh so this is very short stories here. So uh definitely going to read I think the quiet woman and I'll explain why when I get to it.

[00:17:49]Uh Andrew Forester, the female detective is uh kind of self-explanatory. That's a another yet another 19th century collection.

[00:18:04]Uh WW Jacobs of Monkeys Poor fame with his sea stories which he did a lot more of and then some science fiction best of Frank Herbert. Uh there's a couple of excerpts from novels in this, but uh lots and lots of short stories as well.

[00:18:24]And it's a nice old sphere book.

[00:18:28]Okay.

[00:18:29]Now, this lot.

[00:18:34]Now, bear in mind I can reach out and grab these. Um I didn't want to have to do a lot of research to find things like stories from particular years and stuff like that. Um, and also I realized I probably had a weakness for the international stories. So I bought from this year that we're in right now. This has come out the international book of short penguins.

[00:19:04]Um, collection of short fiction from uh it says six continents. So, uh, that should cover all the bases and, uh, obviously they're, well, not obviously.

[00:19:17]I think they're going to be contemporary stories mainly.

[00:19:22]First one is Herooqi Murakami.

[00:19:25]Um, yeah. So, this would be my go-to book for stories from particular places as per the prompts.

[00:19:38]Then we've got best American short stories, the John Updike collection.

[00:19:44]Uh, Great British Short Stories. This looks [clears throat] kind of pretty. It's actually published by the Reader Digest, famous for their condensed books, but presuming they haven't condensed the short stories. Otherwise, they could be, you know, they'd be super compressed.

[00:20:01]You just get like one full stop or something with the gravitational pull of a black hole.

[00:20:08]These ones are Barnes and Eggford. I think this was a um school textbook and um which is interesting actually. It probably means these stories have been read by generations of school kids. 20th century school. Do need three arms here.

[00:20:29]20th century short stories.

[00:20:32]Um right. So Barnes and Eggford were uh teachers and you got a Joseph Conrad, a DH Lawrence, a Saki, Katherine Mansfield, Emforter, The Machine Stops. I've probably got several copies of that around the house. And The Destructors by Graeme Green. Never read Thou, have I?

[00:20:58]Um probably have read it actually. Um it was adapted on television.

[00:21:03]uh when I was at school and it was one of those like everyone's talking about it the next day kind of things. Um the other one I have that looks a bit like that is short stories of the 20th century book came out in 1949 and the stories are from the 20th century. So, I figured not much gets past me for stories published between 1900 and 1949. That could be a pretty good source. Um, and um, yeah, looks like an interesting bunch of stories, too.

[00:21:46]Okay, then let's see.

[00:21:50]Penguin Book of the British Short Story, Daniel Defo, John Buckant. I think these are chronological.

[00:21:56]Either that or it's the weirdest alphabetizing ever. Um, second volume, PJ Woodhouse to Zadeie Smith. Okay, so they look good. Then more specific best British short stories from particular years. So Nicholas Royal, who you have heard mentioned on the channel, look, he's been editing these best short stories of the year for a while. Uh, so they look fun as well.

[00:22:26]And finally, it's the Penguin book of the contemporary British short story. So, lots of bases being covered here. And I'm pretty sure just grabbing these at random will be quite productive. Um, that's probably about it. If I Yeah, these ones, they're shortish and they are interesting, but I think these will be for another time.

[00:22:54]um because they're not literally short stories, but from the Victorian period when there was a mania for experimenting with shorter books, you had things like these sort of pocketsiz books uh like this one from Lenoi Falconer, which is part of the pseudonym library.

[00:23:25]So these kind of um small books, see they're going to be short uh from authors with pseudonyms and uh other other publishers had similar things like this Zeitgeist library. Um I don't think I'll need to get into these yet a while. Like I think they'll be good to look at in shorty September.

[00:23:53]Okay.