some short classics to see what you like

Here is something I've been thinking about. Apparently there is recent renewed interest in reading "the classics," as in the novels that everyone feels like they're supposed to have read but never got around to. And as someone who was an English major back in the 80s when you had to take a whole bunch of required survey classes (back when we still had to read Pope and Dryden and William Blake, not to mention Austen, Dickens, Trollope, and Wilkie Collins)(and I'm enough of a nerd that I loved it all), I have read quite a few of the classics. QUITE A FEW. In fact, the big hole in my reading is mid-twentieth century, which was considered passé when I was in undergrad. lol. 

So if you're just starting out (in other words, except Lord of the Rings you haven't read a novel written before 1980 ever in your life), it occurred to me that I could pass along some advice. You could start with Middlemarch (a mere 800 pages) and maybe you'd love it, but you might be better off starting off with something a bit less intimidating. In other words, shorter.  

Here are some short works that still totally qualify as classics. Bonus: almost all of these you can find online for free, just google "Joyce The Dead full text free" or something similar. The number of pages is an estimate based on the version I have sitting on my shelves, but of course it depends on the size of the font, the layout of the page, etc. 

Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis 70-ish pages (freaky story about a man who turns into a giant bug, and no I am not making that up)

James Joyce, "The Dead" 40-ish pages (published as the final work in his short story collection Dubliners)

Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener (yup, Melville is the guy more famous for Moby Dick, although that was barely read during his lifetime and didn't become famous until later)

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (you've probably heard of that one, yes?)

Nella Larson, Passing 120-ish pages

Shirley Jackson, The Lottery (short story) or The Haunting of Hill House (95-ish pages) or We have Always Lived in the Castle (under 200). I’ve only read the Lottery, the others look too scary for me.

Kate Chopin "The Awakening" or "The Story of an Hour" --short stories 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" 17 pages, which surprised me when I pulled it off the shelf, I remember it being more like a novella.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (10 pages, but is like a steamroller) 

Dorothy Johnson The Hanging Tree (150 pages), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance(40-ish pages) (I'm sneaking in a Montana author you've probably never heard of, but both of these were made into classic westerns)(also, A Man Called Horse— she was amazing)

Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street (120 pages)(it's only 42 years old but I think it still counts as a classic) 

And a handful of classic short stories: William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily," F. Scott Fitzgerald "Bernice Bobs her Hair," Eudora Welty "Why I Live at the P.O.," D.H. Lawrence, "The Rocking Horse Winner," John Updike, "A&P," Flannery O'Connor "A Good Man is Hard to Find" or "Everything that Rises must Converge," Edith Wharton "Roman Fever" which is a 15-ish page story that seems pointless until you get to the last line. I could go on and on. If you want more, just say the word.

There are many writers who were actually probably more famous for their short stories than their novels during their lifetimes, and some still are (Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Alice Walker-- and although Dickens was famous in his lifetime for his novels, he published dozens of short stories, try "The Chimes"). So you can google any of those and find plenty of options.

Since this is really low on works by writers of color, here is a link to 12 Brilliant Stories by Black Writers to read for free online, not all of which are old.

And that search led me to discover that I'm not the only person who has thought of this (of course not), and here is a list that is actually better than mine from LitHub, which reminded me of several books I've been meaning to read but hadn't yet (Giovanni's Room, for example) or re-read, like Cane which I read and loved in college and still have my copy, but can barely remember.

And of course if you like any of these, now you know some authors whose work you enjoy and you can keep going. Happy reading. 

Random odds and ends, end of July 2026 edition

Updated: I read this this morning after it was published and realized I should have put a warning label on it, because this is a super grumpy post. Welcome to smoke season in northwest Montana-- today isn't the worst it's been, but it's bad enough-- 167, or "Unhealthy for all groups." Ugh. 

- If you hear a fan of our current administration say that the president's agenda should be green-lighted 100% because after all, he was elected by the people, and therefore his agenda is the will of the people, please remind them that the people also elected their congressmen/women and senators. And they elected those people with the expectation that they would do their jobs and uphold the balance of power set up by the constitution. Just saying. 

- OK, that was political, but this is not, this is just about dealing with the people around you. Please if you have a chance today or any day, try to keep your level of righteous certainty about your opinions at about 80%, maybe 90% in a pinch. Try to leave some room for nuance, for discussion, for curiosity about how other people think. Maybe even a little humility. Just be willing to try it. If you're guessing from this that I've run into some people recently who are not willing to try it, you would be correct. 

- I keep running into people who think because I am not 100% out there on that limb I told you about in this post, I'm anti-trans, or not an LGBTQ+ ally, or I'm really a conservative and just don't want to admit it. Whatever. I’m not going to argue with someone who won’t let anyone else be on their team unless they 100% agree with some vaunted unspecified agenda. Not that this would convince someone like that, but outside a couple of local county elections, I’ve voted blue since 1984. 

The conversation around say, ending a pregnancy or someone's orientation or gender identity, can be complex. You don't have to be 100% in one camp or another, in spite of social media algorithms and your like-minded friends who insist you must be. I firmly believe that I can be an ally to all sorts of marginalized identities without dialing my opinions all the way up to 110% of the possible "sides." 

What I'm in favor of is you figuring out how you want to live your life and making it happen, not trying to conform to some agenda made up by the opinion people. And that, unfortunately, is hard. There’s no shortcut. Some of us who are ancient of days are still working on it.  

- OK, and this is kind of obscure, but I'm responding to a particular conversation I overheard recently. Valuing diversity is not the same thing as supporting anarchy. Diversity is reality. Human beings are diverse. Wildly diverse. Saying you're opposed to diversity is like saying you're opposed to oxygen. 

If you're opposed to the DEI policies of the past few years, well, OK, that's a conversation we can have, but please see earlier statement about recognizing complexity and nuance. Just because you can cite a half dozen examples of times when DEI policies went awry doesn't mean that they serve no purpose, and just because you can cite examples of times they achieved what they were intended to achieve doesn't mean that the policies don't need to be adjusted or modified for the current climate. I mean, good grief, could we all please just grow up. The issues facing us are complicated. Getting up in a bully pulpit for your extreme opinion might make you feel all self-righteously triumphant, but it is not helping to solve problems. 

- This week's interesting read: here is a gift link to Michelle Goldberg’s column in the NYT about the Michigan senate race: The Populist Left has a Theory.

- Zepbound update: 152. There's no way to talk about this without sounding like one of those irritating thinfluencers *simpers* I just had no idea I would lose this much weight! I'm so confused! *end simper* so I'm not going to say much else except to tell you that I am confused about this and I'm not sure I'm going to stay with it long term and yes, the migraines do seem to be getting better--and I say that even though the smoke in our area has been bad to terrible on several different days recently and smoke is a migraine trigger for me. 

The run-on sentences in this post abound.  

- And last but far from least, we said good bye to our beloved black lab last week and I'm still not over it. Probably won't be for quite awhile. She was a good, good girl. We miss her every day, constantly every day. The last few months of her life were rough, as anyone who has cared for an elderly dog knows. I can't really wish that she were still here and getting more and more decrepit every day. But we still miss her. Rest in peace, Sadie girl. You were the best.

Stoically putting up with our granddaughter

In her prime