Anthologies – people either love them or hate them (unless it’s raising money for a cause, then most people love them because it’s an easy way to donate to a cause without doing much work). Me, I fall more on the side of loving them, but I am picky about them.
Personally, I think that anthologies are a great way to be introduced to a genre/subgenre and new-to-you authors. I know I’ve given authors a shot – or in a couple cases, a second shot – after reading a short story. I’ve dived into new-to-me series after reading a prologue and I’ve delighted in getting another look at couples in extended epilogues from series that I know about. (I’m not too picky about reading a prologue or epilogue out of order, but I will usually go back and start a series/read the book afterward.)
However, I do have an issue with a full-length story being included in an anthology, especially if it’s one of the only ones. (Obvious exceptions are anthologies that specifically state that they are full-length novels, of course.) What does that mean – specifically to me? Well, I’m not expecting a 20+ chapter story to be included. (For historical romance, that’s pretty much a full-length book; for contemporary, that’s about halfway through a full-length book… which is a topic to tackle another day.) I’m expecting 10-15 chapters max, so when I get a story that just goes on and on, I’m hella confused. And annoyed. Which, frankly, isn’t fair to the author – and I understand that. But I’m always going to think about that story when I look at their other books. It’s a me problem, I know, but 🤷🏻♀️.
As you might be able to tell, or if you’ve just looked at the widget on the sidebar, I’ve been reading an anthology and have resisted just reading the authors I know. Actually, if you look at that, you’ll see three anthologies on there – mostly because I start reading and get my fill of that topic and put it down to come back to. (We won’t talk about how long those other two have been on there… I’ll get back to them someday maybe?) I’ve read about three stories – one of which was 20+ chapters long – and I am probably going to switch to a sports romance or a spicy novella to take a break before returning to it. And if the weather turns colder, I may just knock out the whole anthology in short order – does anyone else find that they read certain types of books in certain seasons? Fall and Winter are huge historical reading seasons for me – there’s just something about curling up with a historical queued up on my Kindle, a mug of tea, and my cats that just makes me happy. (Yeah, I’m a crazy cat lady, sue me. Heh.)
So, what about you? Do you love or hate anthologies? Do you have criteria like I do or are you more just-go-with-the-flow?
Bookish, Nerdy, and Curious 