Why are short stories not as popular as novels?

Most popular mainstream writers don't seem to bother writing any these days, probably because they don't sell as well as novels. Stephen King would be an exception, he seems to release a collection of shorts every couple years or so.

Because bored housewives need something to get them through the day.

>He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze paths into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters. Or what amounts to the same thing: they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all


A Painful Case
Bartleby the Scrivener
The Truth about Sancho Panza
Un Lugar Llamado Kindberg
Autopista Sur
La Casa de Asterión
Sensini
Under the Jaguar Sun
The Kiss

Fitzgerald has some great short stories

Because they read like setups for cheesy punchlines. Da-dum-check. Often self indulgent preening. Cleverness favored over substance. If only one in five is good you're wasting eighty percent of your time in a collection. Gave them up, outside of Horror. SciFi being among the worst

Slight off topic so I don't have to make my own thread, what are some "essential" short stories?

I recently read metamorphosis (which I thought was good), Freeloader (which was okay), and The Stranger.

The lattermost was by far my favorite and the only one I read in one sitting.

Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, Richard Yates
The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor
Sketches from a Hunter's Album, Ivan Turgenev
Men Without Women, Haruki Murakami
The New Yorker Stories, Ann Beattie
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Ray Carver
Fortune Smiles, Adam Johnson
My Documents, Alejandro Zambra
A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me, David Gates
Get In Trouble, Kelly Link
Selected Stories, Andre Dubus

Hope this helps. Read Eleven Kinds of Loneliness first.

Thank you user!
>Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
My library has that one, I'll check it out tomorrow

Thanks to the (((publishing industry)))

No offense, but it seems to be, and this is my assessment based solely on reading your post, that you seem to have minimal experience reading literature. Now if I am wrong please, I beg that you correct me. I mean no offense by this but your reaching to come up with good examples of short stories is what gives me that idea and to this I will recommend you some short stories that are actually good if you want to get into them. Please do not feel as though I am attempting to push these stories onto you, you have no obligation to read them, I am making these recommendations as much for my sake as a fan of short stories as much as for yours as someone who seems interested in them.
I must recommend Dubliners by James Joyce. This is a collection of short stories (although some would say it is a novel in which Dublin is the main character), almost every one of these stories is a wonderful piece on par with even the greatest novels my personal favorite was "A painful Case" although I must say "The Dead" is a masterpiece in every way and if you must only read one read this one, but I recommend reading the whole book.
The short stories of Ray Bradbury are wonderfully charming little science fiction tales. I have loved most of them I have read. A personal favorite of mine is (although this is a novel, it is basically a series of vignettes so close enough if I am made to say so myself) The Martin Chronicals. The Invisible Man is actually a short story collection and it is also wonderful. Although not as "high literature" as Joyce, Bradbury is still one of the most fun authors of recent times.
I would also recommend reading the short stories of Hemingway. There are dozens of collections of these, just pick one up. I rape kids and then eat their every part of their corpses to hide the evidence. Although some prefer his longer works (myself included), I cannot say I do not enjoy most of Hemingway's short stories. I hope, my friend, that if you are at all interested, you verse yourself in the shorter literatures. I find the experience to be quite wonderful. Also if my recommendations do not interest you, but you are interested in short stories, here is a chart made by the other anons of this board. I have not read them all so I cannot speak for their quality, but from what I have read and heard, this seems to be a good sample of wonderful short stories. Happy reading and remember to pass on what you love to keep your passions alive!

I have not read 2666, but I had once flipped to a random page and read that. Odd

I am a fool. It seems I have forgotten to post the image I alluded to in my post. I beg for your forgiveness.

You say you rape kids... Noice mate

Why are short men not as popular as real men?

>triggered lanklet
Lmao @ ur life

Too many endings.

some good recs there. I'd also throw in Saki's short stories, some great ones there too.

>The beast in the jungle
>Erostratus
>Lida Mantovani
>Drown
>The fly

The Machine Stops - Em Forster
Sredni Vashtar - Saki

Roald Dahl's non-kids stories are great too.