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In even older times, pre-medieval, there are records of people commenting with surprise on seeing someone read silently, it was so unusual. Kafka used to read his stories aloud and laugh until the tears ran.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003ETry reading a short story to someone your own age, or older, including much older. A friend, your auntie, your cat (yes, someone gloriously reported having done this)!\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EThink ghost stories around the fire and try something chilling. \u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2446168\"\u003E\"The Lottery\"\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Shirley Jackson is a time-honoured read-aloud, with its deceptively normal opening, gradual building of apprehension, culminating in a terrible reveal. Plus, plenty to talk about afterwards, as everyone wants to know what it means. Shirley Jackson claimed she herself didn't know.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.oif.ala.org\/oif\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/the_lottery-195x300.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oif.ala.org\/oif\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/the_lottery-195x300.jpg\" height=\"320\" width=\"208\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EOr get yourself a collection of the haunting horror\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2191340\"\u003Estories of Daphne Du Maurier\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;Read \"The birds\" and then watch \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2041780\"\u003EAlfred Hitchcock's adaptation\u003C\/a\u003E for Challenge #8, \"Watch a movie or TV show based on a book\", or \"Don't look now\", less widely known because Hitchcock didn't film it, but \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2841903\"\u003ENicholas Roeg did\u003C\/a\u003E, an atmospheric bloodcurdler which made film history not just for its sex scenes between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, although perhaps most loudly for those.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ctable align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/rjdent.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/01\/daphnedm1205_468x440.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/rjdent.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/01\/daphnedm1205_468x440.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"font-size: 12.8px;\"\u003EDaphne Du Maurier\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor something less frightening, but just as unsettling, try Ray Bradbury's otherworldly stories, often futuristic but not always. \"The Fog Horn\" is my favourite, a soul-stirring imagining of an ancient sea monster's tragic encounter with the modern world, inspired, Bradbury said, from his having come across the coils of a disused rollercoaster laid out on Venice Beach. If you want to have a look, you can read it online in plain-to-the-nth-degree text on the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/TheFogHorn\/TheFogHorn.txt\"\u003EInternet Archive\u003C\/a\u003E, or get it in print\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2496486\"\u003Efrom the library\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;as Bradbury would have wanted you to. He fought digitisation of his books tooth and claw, happily claiming his right to try to prevent the future.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.oif.ala.org\/oif\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/the_lottery-195x300.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1202492023l\/357496.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1202492023l\/357496.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"125\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EHow about a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2720927\"\u003ESherlock Holmes story\u003C\/a\u003E?\u0026nbsp;My personal choice would be\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2170873\"\u003EThe hound of the Baskervilles\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ewhich I've always thought of as a story but which I've just discovered is technically a novel. Let's call it a long story. You could tell yourself you're going to do in parts... and then see if you're able! It's another one you could pair with a film\u0026nbsp;viewing\u0026nbsp;- the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2832037\"\u003E1939 Basil Rathbone classic\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;or the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3269678\"\u003E1950s version\u003C\/a\u003E: Christopher Lee! Peter Cushing! A slew of other B-cinema names!\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EIf you like the idea of the great sleuth but you want something easier to tackle at a sitting, I've checked it out (not being a Sherlock expert myself) and \"A scandal in Bohemia\" sounds like just what you need. It's only about a 10 minute read, and introduces a Sherlockian-fandom superfavourite, the shadowy Irene Adler. \"To Sherlock Holmes, she is always\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003Ethe\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ewoman.\" is the first line of the story. You can\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.eastoftheweb.com\/short-stories\/UBooks\/ScanBohe.shtml\"\u003Eread it online here\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EYou can't go wrong with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003Eany\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eof the nine stories in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1150387\" style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003ENine stories\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by JD Salinger.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EIf you prefer something more contemporary, which picks up on the maddening, sad and\/or scary aspects of the world we inhabit today, without forgetting the comic side, try\u0026nbsp;George Saunders. Have I ever been so disturbed by a story as \"The semplica girl diaries\" in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2720927\"\u003ETenth of December\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E? Possibly only by \"The lottery\".\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EOr Tobias Wolff, and here I will point you to \"Bullet in the Brain\". Someone once phoned the library looking for this story right when I had the book in which it appears,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2294537\"\u003EOur story begins\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Esitting on my bedside table. He was looking for it because he'd seen it described as one of the most perfect short stories ever written. I agreed! Unlike that customer, who had to wait for me to return the book (but I did the very next day, even though it wasn't even due yet, because bonding), you can now read it right away online a\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: \u0026quot;times\u0026quot; , \u0026quot;times new roman\u0026quot; , serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: times, times new roman, serif;\"\u003Et\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/pov.imv.au.dk\/Issue_27\/POV_27cnt.html\" name=\"RTFToC1\" style=\"background-color: white; font-size: small; white-space: nowrap;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;\"\u003EP.O.V. No.27\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: white; font-size: x-small; white-space: nowrap;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EA Christmas story, given the season? O.Henry, master of the plot twist, wrote one of the most famous and sentimental Christmas stories of all time:\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003EThe Gift of the Magi.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003EYou'll find it, and many of his other stories, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.online-literature.com\/o_henry\/1014\/\"\u003Eonline at the\u0026nbsp;Literature Network\u003C\/a\u003E, where you will also find such savoury read-alouds as\u0026nbsp;Edgar Allan Poe's stories (\"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.online-literature.com\/poe\/25\/\"\u003EThe cask of Amontillado\u003C\/a\u003E\"! \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.online-literature.com\/poe\/40\/\"\u003EThe Pit and the Pendulum\u003C\/a\u003E\"!), Oscar Wilde's heartbreaking\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.online-literature.com\/wilde\/\"\u003Efairy tales\u003C\/a\u003E, Gogol's very funny classic \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.online-literature.com\/gogol\/the-nose\/1\/\"\u003EThe nose\u003C\/a\u003E\"\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E(a barber starts the day by finding a familiar-looking nose in his loaf of bread), and Ambrose Bierce's spectacular \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.online-literature.com\/bierce\/175\/\"\u003EOccurrence at Owl Creek Bridge\u003C\/a\u003E\".\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EAnd let's not forget that classic story \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.eastoftheweb.com\/short-stories\/UBooks\/LadyTige.shtml\"\u003EThe Lady or the Tiger\u003C\/a\u003E\", whose very title has entered our language, referenced by both Sylvia Plath and Batman, an appropriate story to end on. I challenge you to read it (it's very short and very worth it) and find out why I say that!\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/7534873150311871555\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2016\/12\/great-summer-read-read-story-to-someone.html#comment-form","title":"2 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/7534873150311871555"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/7534873150311871555"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2016\/12\/great-summer-read-read-story-to-someone.html","title":"Great Summer Read: Read a story to someone"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Karen Craig"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18310967522076681423"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"23","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-WaLn2rFYxqE\/UNvHlimMvBI\/AAAAAAAAABY\/ceYnAw1lZEk\/s220\/The%2BLibrarian.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"2"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501884760724421053.post-3463691307435190783"},"published":{"$t":"2009-03-25T04:30:00.000+13:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-05-06T01:45:09.825+12:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Karen"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"short stories"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"The Listener"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tobias Wolff"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Bullet in the brain and other perfect short stories"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"A while back I picked up a ringing phone in our workroom and it was a man asking if we had a copy of Tobias Wolff’s new book of short stories, which he had read about in \u003Ci\u003EThe Listener\u003C\/i\u003E, that we could send out to Remuera Community Library for him. Our copies were all out, but here’s the thing, one of them was out to me.  “Have you read it yet?” he asked me when I told him. Well, not really, not yet, just what fit in on the bus trip home.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E“Did you read the one called “Bullet in the Brain” he went on. Umm, not sure, but it sounds familiar. “About a man getting shot during a bank robbery, he makes the robber angry by talking back and he gets shot.” I cast my mind about energetically but no Tobias Wolff stories about bank robbery appeared on the horizon. “The review says it’s one of the best stories ever written.” I started to feel on the spot. Everything was being crowded out of my mind by images of Bill Murray robbing the bank dressed as a clown in that genius film \"Quick Change\" and fragments of a Thurberian “battle of the sexes” joke in which a henpecked husband gets his wife shot during a bank robbery, told to me years ago by a retired Royal Navy Commander of that generation which did lots of crossword puzzles and told that kind of joke.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-QF-SDO4TuO4\/UMUSOe73hjI\/AAAAAAAAKGU\/xMHpPVd64gk\/s1600\/karens_table.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"152\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-QF-SDO4TuO4\/UMUSOe73hjI\/AAAAAAAAKGU\/xMHpPVd64gk\/s400\/karens_table.jpg\" width=\"125\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EOne of the best short stories ever written! I told him I'd bring it back the very next day and check it in and he'd have it by the weekend.. “Oh no, I wouldn’t want to do that, I can wait until you’ve finished it,” he protested. Don’t worry, I have plenty of books on my bedside table, I said. Come to think of it, one of them is another Tobias Wolff book. He acquiesced at that point, but I was pretty sure he didn’t get the full picture. Here it is. I made a record of it when I got home; it was too funny. There it is, fifth from the bottom, the library’s copy of \u003Ci\u003EOur story begins\u003C\/i\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHe told me he wasn’t a computer user, the man from Remuera, so he will never actually see the photo, which is all right, but I wish I could tell him that it turned out I actually had read “Bullet in the brain”, not in the new book, but in the other Tobias Wolff book, a military-coloured Vintage paperback which probably won’t show up in the photo, as my father’s name and the date – 1996 – in his handwriting on the inside flypaper never could.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI only realized it half way through re-reading it, because it is the final three pages of the story, past the robbery part, which knock the breath out of me. I agree wholeheartedly with \u003Ci\u003EThe Listener\u003C\/i\u003E reviewer, whoever it was. “Bullet in the brain” is a perfect short story. It is unbelievable how finely crafted it is, the symbiosis between the way the story is being told and what it is telling, the jerky preamble, the explosion, the suspension, accelerating to the sharp, sweet ending which reaches into the deepest part of us.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI asked myself what other perfect short stories I know. “A perfect day for banana fish” by JD Salinger; several of Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories -- “The three day blow”, “Indian camp” and also “The Killers”, and “My old man”, which isn’t a Nick Adams story but still by Hemingway; “Goodbye my brother” and a couple of others by John Cheever. Joyce's \"The dead\" but also another story in \u003Ci\u003EDubliners, \u003C\/i\u003Ethe one about the man who desperately wants to leave work to go have a drink, and he can’t because they’d see that his hat isn’t hanging on the hat rack. I’d be really happy to get anyone else’s suggestions. I’m not really as much like Miss Jean Brodie as I sometimes sound (“Who is the greatest Italian painter, Rose?” “Leonardo da Vinci, Miss Brodie.” “No, it is Giotto. He is my favourite”).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/3463691307435190783\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2009\/03\/bullet-in-brain.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/3463691307435190783"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/3463691307435190783"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2009\/03\/bullet-in-brain.html","title":"Bullet in the brain and other perfect short stories"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"tosca"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"28","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-DKeaBNqmKUo\/VBStvJvL4cI\/AAAAAAAAR4M\/ZsfOjoSDymI\/s1600\/*"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-QF-SDO4TuO4\/UMUSOe73hjI\/AAAAAAAAKGU\/xMHpPVd64gk\/s72-c\/karens_table.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});