Friday, February 12, 2010

short stories

After weeks of postponing, I hosted a small gathering of work colleagues at home last night. Nine of them came to share in the spaghetti in meat sauce, chips, cookies, wine, beer, soda, and The Bar. They made good use of our billiards table -- unfortunately something I do not do as I have very little interest for this sport/activity.

We talked about our usual topics: work, politics, movies, music, people. The evening felt like an extended lunch hour, at night, but with a pool table and some alcohol. By 3 am everybody had cleared out; I'd like to think they all had a swell time.

* * *

I have a plan to study most of the day today. Hurdles would be: other things to read, the urge to nap, and an errand to pick up two liters of milk. Once I buckle down and actually open the textbook though, I expect that I will be sailing along. . .

It's Valentine's weekend, and I'm happily at home, reading tweets, and some short stories. I suspect the reason I never enjoyed short stories as much as novels, is due to the novels being more usually in a handsome format -- that is a hardbound document, or printed on good paper. Typically, I encounter short stories on: websites, PDF form, or a badly produced photocopy. We read with our eyes, but there is also a tactile dimension in the process of reading.

2 comments:

Kat said...

I have been too stingy lately to shell out money on novels since I know that I can get them online. I bought two short story anthologies lately by Filipino writers since I am sure that there is no digital version of those yet. Try Olvidon by F. Sionil, but I agree, not so nice to touch. Paper looks two notches above mimeo.

I am also getting some work and writing done this weekend.

Re: blog link

No blog. I write in my FB notes. Spares me the hassle of maintaining two sites.

fabian said...

Thanks Kat, I will take a look at Olvidon.

Do you like plays / musicals? My next blog entry is going to be a short review.