Eight short stories to read in one sitting

If you are a slightly lazy reader just like me, you'll probably enjoy these 8 short stories that you can read in one sitting.

I'll start this list with the mysterious story entitled William Wilson written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839. It describes the strange events in the life of a young boy who meets another schoolboy who not only has an uncanny resemblance to him but the same name as well. It vaguely reminds me of the chilling struggle between good and evil in Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. If you've watched the Italian series Curon and are attracted to the concept of the doppelganger - the wicked double of a living person - this is the story for you.

Click this link to read it online

https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/the_story_of_william_wilson.pdf

The Nightingale and the Rose is a poignant fairy tale of unrequited love and selfless sacrifice penned by Oscar Wilde in 1888. A sympathetic nightingale helps a desperate lovesick student find a red rose for the girl he loves. In this story, Wilde weaves an interesting plot of romance and disillusionment with a powerful description of nature.

Click this link to read it online

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/NigRos.shtml

An impulsive narrator, a shiny new car and a dark night make How It Happened a compelling short story. Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1918, the story mixes two of the author's passions: cars and spiritualism. Even though Sherlock Holmes is not involved, it is definitely a good read.

Click this link to read it online

https://americanliterature.com/author/sir-arthur-conan-doyle/short-story/how-it-happened

Exposing racial prejudices that still haunt our society today, Kate Chopin wrote Désirée's Baby in 1893. It is the heartbreaking story of a mother and her child doomed by the cruelty of racism before the American Civil War.

Click this link to read it online
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DesiBaby.shtml

If Dark, the German series, has blown your mind, Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder will also make you wonder what would happen if we could alter the past. It's not as complex, though. Set in 2055, the plot hinges on a man who travels back in time to shoot a dinosaur and makes a fatal mistake that will ruin his life.

Click this link to read it online

http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST389/ASoundofThunder.pdf

If you believe that reading is a pleasurable escape from the ordinariness of everyday life, H.G. Wells' The Door in the Wall (1911) will provide, literally, a fantastic escape from reality. Will the boy, and then the man, in the story succumb to the tantalising door in the wall?

Click this link to read it online
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/tditw.html

For those who enjoy Stephen King's style, Strawberry Spring is a horror story that he wrote in 1968. A man recalls a series of brutal killings that happened when he was a student at New Sharon Teachers' College. Even though time has passed, new murders prove that the killer is still out there. By the way, have you watched the series The Outsider based on one of his novels?

Click this link to read it online 

http://www.krypta-smierci.neostrada.pl/ebooks/Stephen%20King%20-%20Night%20Shift%20-%20Strawberry%20Spring.html

Short and sweet, but challenging. A Haunted House (1921) by Virginia Woolf offers her own take on the ghost story. It is a sensory description of a ghostly couple as they glide through the house where they once lived. A story based on perception that might be a bit difficult to decipher at a first reading.

Click this link to read it online

https://www.charleston.org.uk/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf/

The Prompter

I decided to call this blog "The Prompter" because I like the idea of a foreign language teacher as a person who helps students to express their views in a different language. Cambridge dictionary defines prompter as"a person offstage who reminds the actors of forgotten lines" so we, as teachers, are constantly prompting our "actors", so to speak, in our lessons. 

I believe learning a foreign language is a never-ending process so in this blog I'm going to share what I know, but also practise what I'm still learning.

Many years ago, when I was in my 20s, I distributed some worksheets to my students for fun and it was then that the idea of The Prompter was born. One of my students owned a net cafe so he helped me with the design and my brother made the illustrations. This was the first "issue". 

Gualeguaychú

My hometown lies on the banks of the Gualeguaychú River in the south east of Entre Rios and is two hundred kilometres away from Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. 

Gualeguaychú River

Mendez Casariego Bridge

The Old Port Crane

The Port Walk

One of the Beaches

It was founded by Tomás de Rocamora on 17 October 1783 and around 82,000 people live here today.

Alem Street

The Cathedral in the distance

Gualeguaychú Skyline

The town holds a nationally-renowned carnival festival which includes floats, music and dancing in the summer and a traditional student-made float parade in the spring. 

The Carnival Parade

A Carnival Float

Another Carnival Float

A float in the Carnival Parade Venue

Gualeguaychú is also known as the "City of Poets" because writers such as Olegario V. Andrade, Luis N. Palma y Gervasio Mendez lived here.

Poets' Corner in San Martin Square

Read more about Gualeguaychú in this blog https://visitgualeguaychu.blogspot.com/

Find out more about Poets here http://poetscornergualeguaychu.blogspot.com/

London 2018

Hello!

I've decided to start my blog with a brief overview of my trip to England. A trip that's been the icing on the cake of almost twenty years of teaching English and talking about London and its landmarks, the Royal Family, Received Pronunciation and so forth.

From the moment I became a teacher, I spent many years longing and waiting to have firsthand experience of what England, or at least, London was like. And that waiting came to an end on July 10th,2018

View from the London Eye

I'm sharing my view on the London I saw with a sloppy poem and some pictures.

The London I saw was...

The London...

Of driving on the left

Of double-deckers and cabs

Of pelican crossings and zigzag street lines

Of repurposed phone booths

Of walks by the Thames

And bicycle lights projecting green bikes

A colourful cab and a double-decker bus

The London eye and the London aquarium

A cycleway

The London...

Of the thousand accents

Of locals and foreigners

Of Strike-a-pose photographs at Buckingham gates

Of fish, chips and mushy peas

Of pints outside pubs

And the free museums and galleries just great

Buckingham Palace gates

A pub

The National Gallery

The London...

Of leafy railed squares

Of lakes, ponds and gardens

Of geraniums, squirrels, gulls, swans and geese

Of dogs seldom barking

Of ravens in the Tower

And Green Park & Hyde Park & 20p to pee!

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace flower beds

The Tower of London

"The Raven"

The London...

Of Camden and Greenwich

Of London Eye Rides

Of Trafalgar, Piccadilly, Bloomsbury and more

Of the Gherkin and the Shard

Of the Globe and the Abbey

And that, dear fellows, was the London I saw

Camden

Tower Bridge with iconic buildings in the backpround

The Royal Observatory at Greenwich

The Globe Theatre

Piccadilly Circus

Abbey Road

Piccadilly Circus

This was the London I saw!

This text was originally written in September 2018 in my first attempt to write a blog.