The less time I have, the more I appreciate them. Short stories can be swallowed in one gulp even if you're like me, a mom with a hundred things to do all the time. I'm writing a novel, but I don't often finish novels I'm reading, or it takes me months to do it.

No problem with short stories. A half hour after I open a short story anthology or fire one up on my Kindle, I can look up with that feeling of accomplishment. I finished a story. And if it was a great story, I get that "wow" feeling you can get at the end of a good novel.

Short stories aren't just for literary mags. E-zines are all over, some with great stuff, some with genre (sci fi, fantasy, thriller, mystery) that didn't have a place in the lit mags attached to universities. There's a lot of junky short stories on the web too. The good thing is, you can be as selective as you want. On the web, you're not paying.

But it'd be great if you did every once in a while. The next time somebody has a birthday, buy them a short story anthology. Maybe they'll look at you strange, but once they dig into it, they'll see what delicious literary tidbits are right there in front of them, in bit-sized pieces.

Anthologies like the Best American Short Stories come out every year. Some authors have their own, maybe your favorite novelist. The classic anthologies and collections can re-introduce you to stuff you haven't read since school. Now you're old enough to realize just how good it was.

Here's a LibraryThing list of the classics.