Jolabokaflod Advent Calendar 2025

There is a particular pleasure in finishing a story in a single sitting.

Not because it is quick, but because it is complete. A whole world opened and closed within the space of an evening. A beginning, a middle, and an ending that fits neatly into the shape of winter time.

December is especially kind to short stories.

The days are fragmented. Evenings arrive in pieces. Energy comes in waves rather than long stretches. Short stories understand this rhythm. They don’t ask us to clear an entire afternoon. They meet us where we are — tired, busy, hopeful — and offer something whole without asking for more than we can give.

I used to think of short stories as something secondary. A warm-up. A side dish. But one winter, reading story after story over the course of December, I realised they were doing something novels sometimes struggle to do: giving me repeated moments of arrival.

Each story felt like opening a small gift.

Winter short stories are especially powerful because they work with the season rather than against it. They are perfect for late evenings, quiet mornings, or those in-between moments when starting a longer book feels like too much. They remind us that reading does not have to be continuous to be meaningful.

Today, on Day 20 of our Jolabokaflod Advent Calendar, I invite you to treat December like a literary festival — one where each story is a standalone event. No pressure to keep going. No need to remember where you left off. Just the pleasure of stepping briefly into a carefully shaped world, then returning refreshed.

🎭 Today’s Reading Picks — “Winter Short Story Festival”

Beautiful collections to dip into throughout the season:

• The Driver’s Seat — Muriel Spark
• Selected Stories — Alice Munro
• Winter’s Tales — Isak Dinesen
• Dubliners — James Joyce

These are books you can open anywhere — and close with satisfaction.

You can explore the full Advent Calendar titles here:
👉 Explore the Advent Calendar collection on Bookshop.org

And if you’d like more compact reading pleasures:
👉 Visit the Short Reads & Novellas Shelf

• Small Things Like These — Claire Keegan: A luminous, compassionate novella set in 1980s Ireland; tender and quietly powerful
• The House on Mango Street — Sandra Cisneros: Short, vignette-style coming-of-age tales; poetic and accessible across ages.
• Animal Farm — George Orwell: A short allegory with deep political and moral weight; deceptively simple but richly layered.
• Frankenstein — Mary Shelley: Short enough for a weekend, yet rich in themes of creation, responsibility and humanity.
• Northanger Abbey — Jane Austen: A light, witty novel with charm and heart; breezy but thoughtful
• The Children’s Bach — Helen Garner: Intimate, gentle and lyrical — a quiet, thoughtful novel about relationships and desire.
• Passing — Nella Larsen: A short but powerful novel exploring identity, race, belonging — emotionally deep despite brevity.
• So Long, See You Tomorrow — William Maxwell: Short and beautifully written; elegantly captures memory, childhood, regret and grace.
• Desperate Characters — Paula Fox: A compact novel of psychological realism; subtle, intense, deeply human.
• The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald: While sometimes taught young, its themes of longing, identity and illusion resonate across ages.
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold — Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Short magical-realist novel: atmospheric, haunting and emotionally rich.
• The Turn of the Screw — Henry James: Short gothic-psychological novella; unsettling, ambiguous and compelling
• The Time Machine — H. G. Wells: A classic sci-fi novella: imaginative, compact, thought-provoking — great for younger or older readers
• Bonsai — Alejandro Zambra: A small, intimate novel exploring love, memory, identity in understated, poetic prose.
• The Yellow Wallpaper — Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A brief, intense novella that’s haunting and insightful, especially about gender, mind and confinement

This winter, you don’t need to commit to one long journey.
You can take many small ones instead.

Each story.
Each evening.
Each quiet moment — complete in itself.