This story on PW Online, contains the quote “everyone pretty much agrees that publishing is broken but we keep doing the same things over and over."

Among the possible fixes for the broken publishing industry, the article continues, is Twitter.

Twitter, as everyone knows, is a quick way to get the word out about events, reviews, interviews and, of course, books themselves. But it’s also a way to, for instance, share a chapter of Ulysses with the masses, as a Boston Tech professor has done. We here at the University of Nebraska Press haven’t jumped on the Twitter bandwagon just yet, though it’s coming, and likely soon. I like the idea of posting entire stories on Twitter, such as those in Microfictions – a collection of short short stories by Ana Maria Shua.

Speaking of short stories, this is the time of year for summer reading lists. I was thinking of my own summer reading selections, and realized that I am drawn, summer after summer, to short story collections. Some good ones from the UNP:

— Our Lady of the Artichokes, a beautifully written collection of stories by Katherine Vas, which explores topics of religion, youth, death, poverty, among many others. Bonus: It has a really beautiful cover.

— Bad Jews and Other Stories, by Gerald Shapiro. I first read this collection while I was still in college, shortly after I took one of my very favorite college classes of all time (which happened to be taught by the author.) Protagonists featured in this collection are often cranky, funny (either intentionally or unintentionally), mishap-prone and yet supremely sympathetic.

— The aforementioned Microfictions by Ana Maria Shua. I’ve written about this book before, but it’s one that merits a second mention. This is a collection of extremely short stories – many are just a few lines long – that despite their brevity are still funny, thought-provoking, heart-breaking and, almost always, suspenseful and unexpected. This is a book that could be read in half an hour. However, I recommend reading each story slowly and savoring every well-chosen word.