Most people read short stories. Magazines, newspapers, and books, printed in millions of copies every month, regularly supply the demand for short fiction. In the United States today the short story is overwhelmingly the most popular of current literature. Perhaps it is the modern manner of living that insistently demands that all current fiction be short. Automobiles, jet planes, telephones, and internet all bow at the altar ( 条坛 ) of speed. And literature shares its place in the favor of the crowd with amusements undreamed of a hundred years ago. The time for leisurely reading of ten volume novels appears to have passed with the horse and buggy ( 轻便马车 ) and the pony express. The fiction readers demand a literary form that suits their moods and habits. Long introductions, leisurely discourses on philosophy, and detailed descriptive passages become the special joy of a particular kind of reader , whereas the crowd chooses the short story. Small wonder, then, that many writers have turned their talents to the short story.