Cooking the Books - an essay

I wrote this short essay (2000 characters total) for the University of Virginia.

Cooking the Books: a Lesson in Portion Size and Poetry

As a child, I was a voracious reader, chomping through Lord of the Rings in eleven days and devouring heady tomes of Austen or Homer without losing my appetite - and, until recently, I was on a novels-only diet. But a few years ago, while strolling idly through the science fiction, I came across “Nightfall and Other Stories,” a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. So, on that lazy summer evening, I began my journey into short fiction.

                Sleep did not come easily that night. I found that the stories were like potato chips – you couldn’t eat just one. And, unlike chips, each was not only radically different and deliciously satisfying, a gourmet dish in itself, but it left you curious, and hungry for more. I visited worlds that had never seen darkness, and glimpsed a future where going out-of-doors was considered hazardous to one’s health. And in every story, I discovered a beautifully crafted “what if?” – sometimes answered, sometimes left open for the reader to explore. Both long and short stories were good meals – but while the former was a one-dish dinner, the latter was a pâté de foie gras with Chardonnay, whose flavor lingered in your mouth long after you swallowed.

                Since then, I have sampled collections and anthologies, from Chaim Potok’s Zebra and Other Stories to Halo Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe. I have applied the “short is sweet” principle in my own stories, practicing word economy and polishing every sentence until it glows. I have realized that life is not one long epic, but rather a series of moments, each with its own joys or sorrows to savor, lessons or questions to receive and, perhaps, answer. And I have begun to live, as well as write, as well as read, like a food critic – taking my time to savor every word, every nuance, every flavor.