Excellent short reading?

January 29, 2009 7:48 PM

Excellent short reading?

Inspired by this post, which links to an excellent article on the death and homecoming of an Iraq war veteran killed in combat, I am looking for well-written stories, essays, articles that I can download and read on my laptop. I already read lots of books, and also lots of newsy-type articles and blog posts, but not much inbetween, and I know I'm missing some excellent writing. I'm looking for (specific) recommendations for your favorite articles, stories, and short fiction/nonfiction, preferably available free online. Thanks very much.

posted by btkuhn to writing & language (10 comments total)

Self-link 1

Self-link 2
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:51 PM on January 29

You can't download most of them for free, but there is a ton of stuff to read online at wowio. They have essays, fiction, graphic novels, classics, etc.

In addition, there is Project Gutenberg, for all your open source reading needs.
posted by slavlin at 7:55 PM on January 29

I'm a big huge of Gutenberg, but it's a better resource for someone searching for a specific text . http://www.bibliomania.com/bibliomania-static/index.html is a great site to browse some Classics of poetry, short stories, novels, plays, etc.
posted by njbradburn at 8:19 PM on January 29

Sounds like you would die for the New Yorker. Short fiction, biographies, investigation, nonfiction, the works. Really is the best magazine around. The majority of each new issue is posted online if you want to check it out, but for ~$40/year you get the magazine and online access to every issue ever published.

Others in the same vein: The Atlantic, Harper's, Vanity Fair (sometimes), Esquire (sometimes). Also you might check out The New York Times magazine, NYRB and/or LRB.
posted by jckll at 8:25 PM on January 29

A whole lot of little David Foster Wallace bits from Harper's Magazine.
posted by lottie at 8:26 PM on January 29

A MeFi post turned me on to the New Yorker's "Annals of Medicine" series. This one called "The Itch" is incredibly interesting/disturbing.
posted by radioamy at 9:11 PM on January 29

Ted Chiang is a brilliant Sci-Fi short story writer who has won heaps of awards and ridiculous levels of critical acclaim. Here are his stories Understand and Division by Zero.
posted by smorange at 4:35 AM on January 30

since self linking is in vogue.
posted by tylerfulltilt at 7:11 AM on January 31

There's also this site that turgid dahlia posted in a similar question
posted by tylerfulltilt at 7:15 AM on January 31

what kinds of short stories do you like?
posted by unicazurn at 11:43 PM on February 2