There is a lot to be learned about life from reading short stories. A good short story can transport the reader far off into the future or back to life in the 1800’s, or anywhere in between … all in about the same amount of time that it takes to finish a cup of coffee.
In just one hour of reading, for example, you can experience the life of an elderly woman in the rural U.S. south in the 1940’s; walk in the boots of an 1890’s prospector trudging alone through knee-deep snow and unimaginable cold in the Alaskan Yukon wilderness; witness the humiliating travails of a Russian document copier during the waning days of the Russian Empire; visit a seemingly normal small town on its annual Lottery Day.
Today, the short story reader can experience the lives and thoughts of characters living in virtually every country on earth. Men can learn more about women and women more about men. There is much pleasure and knowledge to be derived simply from reading good short stories.
Even reading stories of ordinary lives expands our own inner world when those stories have been masterfully written.
Reading short stories can result in the enhancing of both self-awareness and creative thinking.