Herman by Jim Unger for February 08, 2021

On the short shelves, of course.

She would tell you, but it’s a long story..

Try Snow White and the seven………..well, you know

Parking meter about to run out? Or diarrheic?

On the Reader’s Digest aisle.

or, you could watch at a jokes web site on your phone

Short attention span. My daughter likes me to read her stories. I refuse to read anything but short stories because she loses interest too fast.

in covid times, short stories make special sense. I recommend early Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Grace Paley, Tillie Olsen & Flannery O’Connor.

To live?

Flashfic.

http://www.sixwordstories.net

They’re on Aisle 4, Mr. O’Henry.

Short story, short setences, short attention span.

I think we’re seeing the effect of these cartoons having been drawn in another era, pre-internet. I’m pretty sure the joke is about how people used to go to book stores and sit in there for hours reading for free, as if it were a library. Of course, book stores used to encourage it, providing chairs and benches and even coffee shops, knowing that if you fell in love with a book, you were likely to eventually buy it, and even buy other books by the same author. Still, it was a rare opportunity to “sample” the merchandise. Can’t do that same thing as a grocery store or a drug store. :)