If the recession/depression has you pinching pennies, check out audible.com, the iTunes of short stories. To celebrate four weeks of short story month, Audible has lots of stories for 99 cents. But if you just want to read the stories, not listen to them, both the Fitzgerald Benjamin Button story and the Junot Diaz story are free online. Condalmo comments on the offerings:
You lured me in with “free Vonnegut short story” bait – downloading now – but readers/listeners will also likely want to stick around for the Joe Meno (The Great Perhaps, Demons in the Spring) piece “I Want the Quiet Moments of a Party Girl” or “The Bet” by Mr. Anton Chekhov. You’re setting loose five different stories each week, which gives you plenty of chances to get a Tobias Wolff one in there. (And don’t go with “Bullet in the Brain” because that’s free over at The New Yorker.) I’m counting on you.
2 comments
Thanks for the link. I like audible, and have belonged for a long time, although I hadn’t noticed these 99 cent stories. I’ve been listening to the New Yorker short fiction podcasts (which can be found on the New Yorker’s web site or on itunes), in which New Yorker fiction writers choose a story and then read it. These have going for them the fact that they’re (a) free and (b) plentiful and (c) have interesting conversations at the end of the reading about why the writer who read the story chose that particular story.
I think the Diaz story is available for free (in audio) at the New Yorker site, as well.
This week’s offerings are pretty skimpy.