It would just not end. Unlike fat
novels where a singular narrative could assist you in reading two hundred or
more pages at one go, these fat short story books would give you a different
setting with different characters after every few pages which will require
special effort to first absorb it all and then point out the main premise of
the story. It becomes like space travel where you are left in a small town or
locality to explore it and just when you are beginning the exploration, it ends
abruptly and you are dropped in some other part of the country to start it all
over. It is like meeting people in buses and trains who would speak a word or
two just when their destination is close and they are leaving their seats to
get off. How many of the stories could one internalize and enjoy the beauty? My
guess is five to six a day would be enough if one is reading ‘Guy De
Maupassant’ or ‘O Henry’. ‘Manto’ and ‘Jhumpa Lahiri’ may give some freedom of
fast reading but what will be the point of that??
