Saturday night I was coming home from a bar and sitting in a taxi when I heard that there was going on some kind of litterature-programme on the radio. Two people were talking about novels and short stories. Other one said that if a writer wants to be successful he has to write novels. His short stories can be extremely good but if he won't write novels nobody cares and he can never become famous or succesful. I felt bad. Right away I remembered how little I have written about short stories here in my blog. I only write about novels or maybe poems but not at all about short stories. That's a shame and I can promise you I have spent my morning by lecturing myself about this.

I don't know why I don't read more short stories. I do love them. I have read short stories that I remember almost for word to word years later. Why haven't I written about them here? I don't know. I promise to be a better girl in the future.

But like I wrote here, I love long stories. I read very fast and I love the feeling when I have 1000 pages ahead of me waiting. I feel very safe when I know that I don't have to leave those characters just yet, when I know that they will stay with me for a long time. I really feel that long books are like long friendships, you learn to love those people and you know they will be there for you when ever you need them. You don't have to be very sharp when you meet them, you don't have to brush your teeth or put on your best clothes because you already know everything about each others.

Then again, short stories are like those ones you meet only once or twice in your life. Short stories are possible new friends and you want to impress them as badly as they want to impress you. You have to listen carefully if you want to hear what they say. You have no idea what is coming and that's why you have to have all your senses open and ready to take the hints and find the hidden messages between the lines. You don't have lots of time to get to know each others, maybe only 10 pages and that's why you have to understand everything right away.

I remember people who I have met only once and they have changed my life. We have talked maybe for ten minutes or spent only 10 days together and after that meeting I have became a different person. And then there are people who have just walked by and I don't remember anything about them. When you start to read a short story you can never be sure which one it's going to be this time, the one that changes your life or the one that walks by. In the first case it can be really hard (I don't want my life to be shaken every five minutes) and in the second case it's just... well... (I can't say 'waste of time', because I don't think reading is ever waste of time, but...) boring?

Anyway, I promise I will take a risk and start to read more short stories and write more about them here. You can do that too. The ones I already know I love are a very good place to start. Do go and read something from Leena Krohn or Raymond Carver. I will just read couple of novels that are now waiting and after that I promise to go and be brave and get to know some new people, new stories and be ready to get shaken.