charles barrow's writing

This post is an update, a follow-on from my last entry.  So I've spent the month of September focussing on the reading of short stories. Short stories aren't my usual go-to choice of reading material. I don't know why, I think I may be secretly prejudiced against them, which I'll have to spend some time (in therapy) unpacking. I have read some great ones in the past, but I just don't reach for them when I need something to read. That may change now, however, following this exercise. My intention this month was to read as many as I could. I aimed to read 20, because I didn't want to overcommit myself, so I was surprised when I just totted up my list and found I'd read 47, and I'm secretly delighted about that. I also wanted to read widely; work by lots of different authors, some I'd never read before, and in different genres, some I don't usually favour. That kind of happened, but the collections I had in my possession tended to focus on dead, whi

It's Short Story September- at least it is in my house. I'm getting into the idea of themed reading weeks/months. I'm already geared up for VicTober (Victorian October) next month - I came across the idea on Youtube, where several Booktubers are already talking about it. But more about VicTober in October. This month I'll be diving into these collections. I also have further collections on my Kindle, Murakami's Men Without Women, and Bolu Babalola's Love in Colour particularly peak my interest. I always love the idea of a short story, but don't very often find myself reading one. And since I'm increasingly drawn to writing some more short fiction, I figure I ought to read a whole variety from different genres and time periods, genders, ethnicities and sexualities. These below, skew white and male, though the ebooks balance things out a little, and I intend to visit the library to find a more diverse range of authors that I don't currently have any wo