Recent Reading

I like to read fiction, literary fiction to be precise. I read no nonliterary fiction. I’m not sure if I ever read any of that stuff.

I also read nonfiction and some plays and poetry, but very little of the last two. I mostly read novels, then short stories and novellas. Been reading a lot of the latter lately.

A novel is generally over 170 pages.

A novella is a short novel, generally between 60-170 pages.

A short story is up to 60 pages.

There is a category called novelette for long short stories from 30-60 pages, but it’s not used much. In that case, a short story would be up to 30 pages.

Short stories from 1-4 pages are sometimes called flash fiction.

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister. Novel (212 pages). 1942. I’ve also read Lolita of course, and it really is worth your while if you can cope with the subject matter. Bend Sinister is supposedly one of his lesser novels, but I like it and I’m generous as far as fiction goes.

This is an excellent book but it’s slow-going. It’s hard to und…