super-short stories or books?

[spear]

Hey,

I have plenty of e-books that can take 2 hours or more to read. This is great for uninterrupted at home reading. However I am looking for material that can be read in tiny doses...maybe 5-10 minute intervals (magazine length I guess) each. Basically something quick to read and finish, so I actually can put it down (I have a problem with getting into a book and not wanting to put it down until its finished, I guess it is a bad compulsion...)

Anyhow any ideas? format isn't a huge issue (well sometimes...no Amazon for me...yet) I like mysteries, Sci Fi, History, all kinds of fiction, so I am open to most suggestions (and where to get them). A big thank you in advance to all who contribute.

[edbro]

Ellory Queen Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock Mystey Magazine
Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine

Short stories compilations. Some good ones are by Flannery O'connor, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, etc.

All available in ebook format.

[ardeegee]

Asimov's and Analog are both available in digital editions.

I'll be able to supply a few more obscure links later when I get a chance.

[Hatgirl]

Tor.com have a bunch of free SF&F short stories available to read online or to download in multiple formats.

http://www.tor.com/stories

[jimplasticguy]

I love short sci-fi for quick reads. I have been a bit dissatisfied with Analog on Kindle, primarily due to formatting (if you are going to charge me that much, you could make it easy to navigate) and DRM issues. Amazon does not treat magazines the same as books, and with the new firmware, I can't De-DRM so that I can put all of them on my new Kindle that replaced my broken one under warranty. They are not available for perpetual download to new devices. Only the last 6 issues or so.

As I was looking for a better solution, I found Baen's Universe. Sadly, Jim Baen passed away shortly after the launch of the magazine. It aimed to have twice the volume of work as similar publications, pay descent rates to writers, and attract top talent.

Baen's Universe ended it's run April 2010. It looks to me like there are 24 quality issues. You can subscribe to it for 30 bucks, and receive rights to download as much as you want of them, DRM free, for one year. That is a great deal. I am getting ready to do it.

Here is a list of all the issues available. http://baens-universe.com/issues/

Jim

[ardeegee]

A few sites with free SF shorts that I ran across recently:

http://www.daikaijuzine.com/dkz/

http://www.subterraneanpress.com/

http://www.darkwaves.com/newsfch/Fiction/Short_Stories/

[dwig]

ManyBooks has a number of short works. There are a good number of SF stories in their "Post-30s" genre option that are extracted from SF magazines (e.g. Astounding, ...). Their "short store" genre listing also has some good pickings.

http://manybooks.net/categories/

Also, Allegory Magazine ( http://www.allegoryezine.com/ ) publishes short fiction in simple downloadable PDF format.

[emonti8384]

I've been reading Andrew Lang's Fairy books when it's too late at night to get into a new story or I'm getting ready to go to bed.

[v1k1ng1001]

I'm gunna recommend The Best American Short Stories series. Every year they pick some hot shot author to edit together a collection of the best short stories a long with a blurb and some information about the authors. These are probably going to be hard to find as an ebook but, really, you can look at the tables of contents on amazon.com and then find a lot of these for free on the web. Just place them into whatever document or file that your ereader likes to play with and you're all set.

[speakingtohe]

Seach for anthologies.
Great way to get introduced to new authors

A little trick I play on myself when I really have to go to sleep or do something else and don't want to stop reading current book is to and read a page or three. Doesn't always work but often does

[Luke King]

For free science fiction, I'd suggest Infinity Plus. http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/index.htm

Or Best Science Fiction Stories. http://bestsciencefictionstories.com/