The Best American Short Stories 1981 - Completed

OK – here are some quick figures on The BASS 1981.

I started reading – or at least posted my first report on the book on Jan. 21, 2010. I am making my last post on Feb. 24, 2010. That works out to:

1 month 3 days

or

4 weeks 6 days

or

34 days

or

24 weekdays

or

802 hours

There were 20 stories and this works out to 1.7 stories per day.

The authors were split right down the center by gender.

As addressed in the Intro to this collection, the most represented literary magazine was the New Yorker, and this collection had the New York literary scene all over it.

My favorite was: The winter father by Andre Dubus

My least favorite was: The Idea of Switzerland by Walter Abish

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection. I suppose I can attribute the speed (slow for most) of my reading/research and thoughts to the excellent collection contained between the covers.

Calisher did a fine job in assembling 20 great stories and her confidence in the strength of the short story form was right on target.

On to 1982