World's Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All This And Much More... [Paperback]

Steve Moss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 1998

This is a quintessential short story book fo r everyone who thinks they don''t have any time to read. Each story is less than 55 words long - ideal for the beach, bus , train, anywhere. '

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A short story in 55 wordsAimpossible! Yet these stories, the world's shortest, have setting, characters, conflict, and resolution. They address murder, love, suspense, horror, betrayal, and often end with a catchy turnaround. The answer lies in the author's ability to write with amazing compression and economy, making each word count. These bite-sized stories, the haiku of short fiction, can be one long sentence or can begin every word with the same letter. As exercises for writers, they can be fun and challenging; as literature they are nibbles. One noteworthy example tells of a man seeking a hit man to kill his wife only to find out she has hired his girlfriend for a similar purpose. These stories demand considerable concentrationAone missed word and the meaning is lostAmaking them perhaps more effective in a print format. The performers, all professional actors, read with clarity and feeling, increasing the drama. At the conclusion, directions and encouragement are offered to all would-be writers of this new genre. Recommended with some reservations for public libraries.ANancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review

"The perfect gift for those who claim to be too busy to read. For the rest of us, these stories are like literary canapes . . . Irresistible." -- Sue Grafton --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (February 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762403004
• ISBN-13: 978-0762403004
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > Anthologies
  • #95 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intermittently amusing light read, September 1, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: World's Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All This And Much More... (Paperback)

Can you write a short story in only 55 words? Sure. Making it a GOOD ultra-short story is the challenge. And "The World's Shortest Stories" is an amusing light read, with many so-so stories, some duds, and some little hidden gems that might make you smile.

The majority of the stories are made up mostly of dialogue, with a twist (like piranhas or bigamy) at the end. Each one takes about ten seconds maximum to read. There's love (a werewolf has a tendency to kill his girlfriends on the full moon), murder (a sex kitten turns out to be a hit woman), terrible puns ("Abra-cadaver!") and sex ("Brenda promised the horizontal hokey-pokey if he wore a chicken suit and spoke French").

Some of the short stories feel unfinished, as if the author had a good idea but couldn't follow it through. And others are downright dour, rarely managing to get any sort of emotion from the reader; an exception was "It Was a Year Ago," a gut-wrencher about drunk driving. But more often it's maudlin, emotionless vignettes like "Photographer's Regrets."

But perhaps two-thirds of the humorous stories manage to evoke a smile or little laugh, like "Harry's Love," about a man's adoration for his curvacious, golden, sensuous... trumpet. And a few of them give twists that will get a grin out of you, like "Dragon Tale," about a peculiar tattoo. Not to mention the vampire support meeting.

"The World's Shortest Stories" has quite a few duds sprinkled through the hits, but it's still an amusing -- and very short -- book of even shorter stories.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great teaching tool - used selectively, August 26, 2006

By 

E. Clark (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: World's Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All This And Much More... (Paperback)

I teach 7th and 8th grade, many second language and non-standard english students. The 55 word stories provide an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the reading/thinking skills of inferencing, drawing conclusions and also a springboard for introducing and explaining the background of euphemisms and common sayings and figures of speech that are not familiar to second language readers.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and haunting!, May 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: World's Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All This And Much More... (Paperback)

I read this book last summer and some of the stories are still lurking in my head... quite an amazing feat for tales only 55 words long! Each story (with few exceptions) made me feel as if I had just read a novel. This book is essential to any story-lover's library.