Long story short: short stories for long bus rides

Whether you are taking a bus to or from the University, the sense of dread whenever the bus stops always remains. On a lucky day, it won’t stop for more than a minute as students flash their Stagecoach passes. On an unlucky day, you feel the bus’ hum abruptly stop as the driver halts the engine. Time somehow ticks slower as you wait for the bus to start again, wondering how an inanimate vehicle has stirred such existential feelings of frustration, dread, and anxiety. Whilst your first object of distraction might be your phone, I find myself constantly glancing at digital clock as it mocks my impatience. If you’ve never faced this problem, I hope it haunts you too. Now you might consider switching screen scrolling to page flipping as a defiant act against the slow-ticking clock.

Starting a new novel is always daunting at first. There are so many excuses to procrastinate turning over the first page: you won’t have time to finish it, you won’t be in the mood, you need to be in the right setting, etc. I understand. Perhaps I understand too well.  That is why I would like to introduce you to short story collections. Each short story in a collection is united under one theme and averages around 30 pages – a perfect amount for the bus ride. In keeping with the spooky season of October, I have compiled my favourite collections filled with magical realism, horror, and absurdist fiction.

The best thing about short stories is that you don’t have to start from the beginning

The best thing about short stories is that you don’t have to start from the beginning. Each story is its own beast, and Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung has ten stories to choose from. Translated from Korean by Anton Hur, this collection features surreal and gory stories with a folkloric style reminiscent of haunting children’s stories. My personal favourite is ‘The Head’, where a woman grapples with her identity as both a woman and a mother, symbolized by a severed head made from faeces. As it turns out, horror is often interlinked with the female body for authors like Bora Chung and Carmen Maria Machado. If this is of interest, Machado’s Her Body & Other Parties does an excellent job of manipulating reality and surrealism to reflect feminist body horror. ‘The Husband Stitch’ sets the tone of her other works wonderfully and is available for free on the Granta website as a taster piece. For something less gruesome but with the same twisted tastes and off-beat humour, George Saunder’s Pastoralia is an excellent collection to immerse yourself in. Not sure whether to indulge? Here’s a summary of one of his stories in the collection by the publisher, Bloomsbury: “A male exotic dancer and his family are terrorised by their decomposing aunt who visits them with a solemn message from beyond the grave.”

You may have now clicked off the article to search for the closest bookstore. If not, I assume there’s still that whiny voice in your head saying: ‘But I don’t want to carry a 200-page book; it’ll be so heavy, and I’ve already got to lug my laptop around and coursework books’. If so, let me demolish that vein of excuses by introducing you to the Macmillan Collector’s Library. At the size of 4×6.5 inches, it’s small enough to slip into your pocket. If gory horror is not to your taste, perhaps the fairy-tale side of the cosy autumn season will be. The Little Prince is my personal favourite, with illustrations on every other page and a classic for all ages. Escape the bus’ frosty windows into the new worlds Antoine de Saint-Exupéry creates – there’s a planet for everyone. Are you looking to embody the main character’s energy by reading Oscar Wilde but are too intimidated to read his scripts and novels? Look no further than his short stories, ‘The Happy Prince’ and ‘The Nightingale and The Rose’. It fits snugly into any jeans or coat pocket. It’s like having Alice’s rabbit hole of diverse worlds right at your fingertips.

If you need more than a pocket-sized book to entice you through your bus ride, there are still plenty of short stories in literary articles online. Holding physical literary journals featuring glossy covers and vibrant images fulfils the nostalgic aesthetic of the 2000s. However, if the prints are too large to carry, there are several online options. My first recommendation is Granta.

It is the home of thousands of talented authors who have published short fiction, poetry, essays, and memoirs

It is the home of thousands of talented authors who have published short fiction, poetry, essays, and memoirs. Upon discovering Granta, Hiromi Kawakami’s ‘I Won’t Let You Go’ was the first story filled with magical realism and mystique I’ve ever read. I was hooked ever since. For an opportunity to read unpublished authors, or if you are looking to submit yourself, Bodega is the perfect place to find your new favourite story in just one bus ride. My last recommendation is The Stinging Fly, a literary magazine published in Ireland. It is filled with wonderfully diverse stories ranging from political undertones to slice-of-life fiction – it even features some of Warwick’s published professors and seminar leaders.

So, the next time you find yourself on a bus, I encourage you to fight against the dragging minutes and let them fly by as your mind goes on its own journey driven by trusted authors

So, the next time you find yourself on a bus, I encourage you to fight against the dragging minutes and let them fly by as your mind goes on its own journey driven by trusted authors. Being physically idle on a bus does not mean your imagination must be. Whether you lean towards the eerie allure of horror or the whimsical charm of fairy tales, there’s a whole world waiting for you. In this season of transformation, embrace the joy of reading and let it become your cherished ritual, one that turns the most mundane bus ride into an uplifting journey. These narratives will fill your commute and remind you of the magic woven into everyday moments. Let your adventures be as boundless as your imagination.