Lately I haven't had the time to read novels (or the attention span, to be honest). So thank goodness for short stories. I've been able to work in a story or two every day, and in recent weeks I've read the December 1948 issue of POPULAR WESTERN, a Wildside Press replica of the August 1935 SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, and part of the December 1943 issue of DIME DETECTIVE. Plus I've started working my way through THE O'HARA GENERATION, a collection of John O'Hara short stories (because Bill Crider posted the other day about O'Hara and got me interested in reading some more of his work). I consider myself lucky that I've got a decent collection of pulp magazines, fiction digests, and anthologies. No matter what sort of story I'm in the mood for, I can generally find several good examples of it.
And I'm sure that I'll get back to reading novels sooner or later. I've been at it for over forty years, after all, and I'm too old to stop now.
3 comments:
What did you make of the SPICY? I recently picked up the Wildside SPICY and the Girasol facsimile of the first issue of STRANGE STORIES (the Thrilling Group's oddly unpublicized fantasy/horror title) just to have examples of both reprint lines, and while the Girasol is slightly more impressive as an artifact (and more expensive), as a reading experience, the SPICY is both awful and interesting in a sociological way for that awfulness. Which, if I remember correctly, hasn't stopped Girasol from offering their own version of that issue, as well. Of course, it would be hard for the SPICY title, even with a Bellem lead story, to out-sentimental the other magazine, which has two Blochs, two Wellmans, and at least one Kuttner...
Memory plays me false, I see (I don't have the STRANGE at hand)...the first issue has at least two Blochs, two Kuttners, and one Wellman...
http://www.noosfere.com/showcase/divers_pulps_11.htm
I enjoyed that reprint of SPICY MYSTERY STORIES. I've read quite a few stories reprinted from the various Spicies (can't afford the originals) and liked them all. The writing is terrible in most of them (although some of the authors who wrote for the Spicies, like Hugh Cave and Bruno Fischer and even Bellem, were pretty darned good wordsmiths), but the stories have such a feeling of sheer over-the-top fun to them that I can't help but enjoy them. They're usually very formulary, though, so it's best not to read too many of them in a row.
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