short story lover discovery

I am like my six-year-old son, whom I have been watching at night as he splits open a new book for the first time and carefully, slowly, reads each word. I can see in his eyes the excitement of his own self-discovery of this brand new world opening up to him. This world of reading and of books. He is proud and he is happy, and he is eager for more. As I sat with last night I saw the future and the past in him, in the present. I saw myself as a child discovering the magic of words and pictures, and I saw my son as a teenager, voraciously reaching for more books to digest.

I felt that same sort of excitement at a new discovery as I paged through the electronic files of MobyLives. Each new article tickled me a little more, and then I read a guest column by Steve Almond about why he liked the short story (http://www.mobylives.com/Almond_story_lover.html), and I knew that I was nodding and bouncing in my seat. "Yes, yes! That's PRECISELY how I feel!"

I have never been shy about announcing that I prefer the art of short fiction more than any other. (Both short stories and short dramas.) I've always felt it was the purest form of fiction. But Almond nails it right on the head with his eight points.

My favorite is #5.