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365: Stories
365 is James Robertson's innovative collection of 365 stories, each 365 words long.
In 2013, James Robertson wrote a story every day. Each was exactly 365 words long. A year later, on a daily basis, the stories were published on the Five Dials website. Now the 365 stories are gathered together in one volume. Some draw on elements of ancient myth and legend, others are outtakes from Scottish history and folklore; there are squibs and satires, songs and ballads in disguise, fairytales, stories inspired by dreams or in the form of interviews, and personal memories and observations.
Underpinning all of them are vital questions: Who are we? What are we doing here? What happens next?
'Wow. James Robertson wrote a 365-word short story each day in 2013. They'll be posted throughout 2014' Ian Rankin, via Twitter
'A great storyteller' The Times
'One of Britain's best contemporary novelists' Irvine Welsh, Guardian
James Robertson is the author of five novels, The Professor of Truth, And the Land Lay Still, The Testament of Gideon Mack, Joseph Knight and The Fanatic. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club the following year. Joseph Knight was the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year in 2003 and And the Land Lay Still was recipient of the same prize in 2010.
In 2013, James Robertson wrote a story every day. Each was exactly 365 words long. A year later, on a daily basis, the stories were published on the Five Dials website. Now the 365 stories are gathered together in one volume. Some draw on elements of ancient myth and legend, others are outtakes from Scottish history and folklore; there are squibs and satires, songs and ballads in disguise, fairytales, stories inspired by dreams or in the form of interviews, and personal memories and observations.
Underpinning all of them are vital questions: Who are we? What are we doing here? What happens next?
'Wow. James Robertson wrote a 365-word short story each day in 2013. They'll be posted throughout 2014' Ian Rankin, via Twitter
'A great storyteller' The Times
'One of Britain's best contemporary novelists' Irvine Welsh, Guardian
James Robertson is the author of five novels, The Professor of Truth, And the Land Lay Still, The Testament of Gideon Mack, Joseph Knight and The Fanatic. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club the following year. Joseph Knight was the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year in 2003 and And the Land Lay Still was recipient of the same prize in 2010.
397 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2014
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192 people want to read
About the author
James Robertson
333 books269 followersJames Robertson (born 1958) is a Scottish writer who grew up in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire. He is the author of several short story and poetry collections, and has published four novels: The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack, and And the Land Lay Still. Joseph Knight was named both the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year and the Saltire Society Book of the Year in 2003/04. The Testament of Gideon Mack was long-listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. And the Land Lay Still was awarded the Saltire Society Book of the Year Award in 2010. Robertson has also established an independent publishing imprint called Kettillonia, which produces occasional pamphlets and books of poetry and short prose, and he is a co-founder and the general editor of the Scots language imprint Itchy Coo, which produces books in Scots for children and young people. He lives in rural Angus.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 18, 2016
365, 365 word stories written one every day for a year. Robertson's project is in danger of becoming gimicky before you've even picked it up. But it doesn't take long to realise the few factors that make 365 a success - James Robertson is a very good writer, he has an intimate knowledge of and passion for stories and how stories come into being, and that this collection works as a whole as well as as individual experiments. As you go through a year of fascinating little essays, vignettes, fables and many more, you get a sense of the depth of this ambitious project and a feeling for the writers meticulous attention to details (and word counts.)
The majority of 365's entries are seperate stories. Robertson's main preocupations are social woes and observations, politics, folktales and Scottish folklore, old age, death (in a very contemplative, playful way) and being a writer. He utilizes farcial scripts, media reportage, Kafkaesque beaurocratic nightmares, historical rewrites, opinion pieces on films and literature as well as actual folk stories. Some are repeated themes, others form a collection such as the clever adventures of the supposedly dumb Jack written in thick Scottish dialect (a very important feature of his writing), the adventures of a Grim Reaper type character or mini series such as the farcial PROBE, CHECK and SCOPE with its Kafka styled claustrophia. And occasionally he's not above a gimick or two, such as the very entertaining use of the N + 7 formula used to warp the story of Rennie Mackay.
Particular highlights - a very spooky remake of an old ballad called the Demon Lover, the style of which echoes Sussana Clarke fairy tale style. Insignificance and Sorrow and Love are two wonderful pieces of contemplation on the meaning of life and death. Imagination is a beautiful ode to the power of the mind about a old soldier reliving his traumas. The Man on the Bus is a simple literary encounter about the vanity of a writer and his invisibility.
365 ends with a fabulous attempt to brings things together, the story of all stories, of an ancient mine where stories are unearthed and the last living miner to roam the Earth. There's no grand statement, no positioning himself as the miner of all stories, Robinson's work is embued with a careful modesty and a complete lack of arrogance, but it is an admirable attempt to bring closure to an immensely varied piece of literature. He gives us an image to attach to his grand project and shows for the upteenth time his great love of stories and his desire to protect, preserve, retell and reinvent stories in a myriad of ways and forms. 8
The majority of 365's entries are seperate stories. Robertson's main preocupations are social woes and observations, politics, folktales and Scottish folklore, old age, death (in a very contemplative, playful way) and being a writer. He utilizes farcial scripts, media reportage, Kafkaesque beaurocratic nightmares, historical rewrites, opinion pieces on films and literature as well as actual folk stories. Some are repeated themes, others form a collection such as the clever adventures of the supposedly dumb Jack written in thick Scottish dialect (a very important feature of his writing), the adventures of a Grim Reaper type character or mini series such as the farcial PROBE, CHECK and SCOPE with its Kafka styled claustrophia. And occasionally he's not above a gimick or two, such as the very entertaining use of the N + 7 formula used to warp the story of Rennie Mackay.
Particular highlights - a very spooky remake of an old ballad called the Demon Lover, the style of which echoes Sussana Clarke fairy tale style. Insignificance and Sorrow and Love are two wonderful pieces of contemplation on the meaning of life and death. Imagination is a beautiful ode to the power of the mind about a old soldier reliving his traumas. The Man on the Bus is a simple literary encounter about the vanity of a writer and his invisibility.
365 ends with a fabulous attempt to brings things together, the story of all stories, of an ancient mine where stories are unearthed and the last living miner to roam the Earth. There's no grand statement, no positioning himself as the miner of all stories, Robinson's work is embued with a careful modesty and a complete lack of arrogance, but it is an admirable attempt to bring closure to an immensely varied piece of literature. He gives us an image to attach to his grand project and shows for the upteenth time his great love of stories and his desire to protect, preserve, retell and reinvent stories in a myriad of ways and forms. 8
October 7, 2023
I'm ashamed to admit that I've never read anything by James Robertson, particularly And the Land Lay Still by James Robertson (2-Jun-2011) Paperback. On this evidence, he's on my "Want to Read" list. I saw him at the Edinburgh Book Festival a year or two ago reading some of these and accompanied by a couple of folk musicians, and the show worked really well.
The concept is simple: one 365-word story for each of the 365 days of the year, so it's flash fiction. Some characters reappear intermittently, but each story is standalone. I read this as dip-in, and that's how I'd recommend it for others: something to have nearby when you're waiting for someone in the car, or whiling away 10 minutes or so.
The concept is simple: one 365-word story for each of the 365 days of the year, so it's flash fiction. Some characters reappear intermittently, but each story is standalone. I read this as dip-in, and that's how I'd recommend it for others: something to have nearby when you're waiting for someone in the car, or whiling away 10 minutes or so.
September 28, 2022
A curious collection of short stories, spanning different prompts and things. Some continue on from other stories while others are completely one offs. James Robertson set himself a task of not only writing 365 stories, one a day for a year, but for each story to be 365 words long in themselves.
While I enjoyed quite a few of the stories, there were some in which I didn't or couldn't really make heads or tails about, most of those left me confused about what I had just read.
But this is the perfect book for those who just want to read a little each day and not a whole or large chapter.
While I enjoyed quite a few of the stories, there were some in which I didn't or couldn't really make heads or tails about, most of those left me confused about what I had just read.
But this is the perfect book for those who just want to read a little each day and not a whole or large chapter.
December 31, 2017
I've been reading this book throughout 2017. I didn't manage quite every day but I started on the 1st of January and finished just now - on Hogmanay. It was great to be reading the stories around the same time of year he'd written each of them. It's an excellent book with a wide variety of story styles - beautiful, thought provoking, funny and sad. Highly recommended.
February 22, 2022
We have been reading "bedtime stories" as adults for years, and nothing we've ever picked up has brought us as much nightly joy and amusement as this one. It's eclectic and not always in a good way, but as a little thing that let my partner and me enjoy a few moments of fiction together each day, this was absolutely perfect!!
December 31, 2024
I meant to read a story a day but somehow I didn’t. Anyway I’ve absolutely loved this book and, while it’s a great one to end the year on, I’m sad to have finished it. I heard James Robertson read the one about his father swimming and it’s still one of my favourites but I really did enjoy them all.
December 29, 2018
Always on my bedside table.
December 7, 2019
So many fascinating stories and probably the best book I’ve read this year. Clever, funny, thoughtful, heartbreaking ... loved it!
Want to read
September 26, 2020I want to become book reader as well.
August 13, 2023
James Robertson is a demigod of the short story, it took me 2 years of endeavour to finish this book, and I am very happy to make it, after so long journey. An absolute must read!
November 29, 2015
When I read a Flash collection by a Flash specialist I often wonder about the value of printing the less good pieces, but market forces dictate that prose books can't be too short. This collection has 365 pieces, the Quality Control put until extra pressure by the constraints that one piece had to be produced each day in 2013, and that the pieces had to be 365 words long (i.e. padding becomes a risk). When I read a poetry collection and sense that there's a sequence of sub-par poems, I often wonder whether it's me having an off day. But in this book, it's just as likely that the writer was having an off week or two. So was I grumpy on Sunday morning, 26th April 2015, or was he off-form in January 2013? I think he gets into his stride in mid-March (6th, 7th, 10th, 12th, 18th, 28th, 30th). I liked April 22-24th; May 7th, 8th, 27th; June 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th (my favourite so far), 20th; July 3rd, 6th, 14th, 23rd; Sep 14th, 16th; Nov 9th; Dec 6th, 11th.
The trend is towards essay, away from verbally individualistic Points-of-View. All the stories can be read in isolation though August in particular has some story sequences, and there are recurring characters and situations. Common themes/details include City vs Countryside, paths, public transport, being alone vs being with others, having an old father ("Like museum curators manoeuvring a bulky exhibit on loan from some other museum, we get him indoors and into his chair - the one without wheels", Oct 19th), Death personified, retold myths, Jack, long walks, midges, cynical politics, religion. There's little lingering description. There is some overt linguistic play - Sep 4th is in something like rhyming couplets - it begins with "I was riding on a Greyhound bus, seeking some place to hide. I slept and when I woke there was a stranger by my side", May 8th is an N+7 piece, and Sep 21st has many puns, and Dec 27th is stuffed with archetypes. There may well be other devices that I missed.
The reasons for the stories not succeeding are less various. Sometimes (as with the ship-repair/continuity symbolism on Jan 12th) an overused idea (one I wouldn't dare use nowadays, even in passing) is used to prop up a story. In stories like on Jun 20th a decent enough idea comes to an innocuous end either because 365 words is too much or too little. And stories like the Jul 16th one simply don't have enough. But if an author paints himself into a corner where stories and even words can't be edited away, what do you expect? Of course, the book could have been shorter, but the format is more a marketing than literary device. By the end I'm not without admiration of the project as a whole for its width more than its depth, a width than could only have been demonstrated by a thick tome. Events like NaNoWriMo and its kin generate many bodies of work produced by quotas. I doubt whether many of those have as much sustained variety as this, even if there are few peaks. Of the story types I think I liked the "Jack" ones best. They could have been collected into a single booklet.
I wonder if all the reviewers are familiar with Flash or [Formalist] micro-fiction. 365 words is quite a generous limit, and except for one or two stories I didn't feel any sense of the language being under pressure.
The trend is towards essay, away from verbally individualistic Points-of-View. All the stories can be read in isolation though August in particular has some story sequences, and there are recurring characters and situations. Common themes/details include City vs Countryside, paths, public transport, being alone vs being with others, having an old father ("Like museum curators manoeuvring a bulky exhibit on loan from some other museum, we get him indoors and into his chair - the one without wheels", Oct 19th), Death personified, retold myths, Jack, long walks, midges, cynical politics, religion. There's little lingering description. There is some overt linguistic play - Sep 4th is in something like rhyming couplets - it begins with "I was riding on a Greyhound bus, seeking some place to hide. I slept and when I woke there was a stranger by my side", May 8th is an N+7 piece, and Sep 21st has many puns, and Dec 27th is stuffed with archetypes. There may well be other devices that I missed.
The reasons for the stories not succeeding are less various. Sometimes (as with the ship-repair/continuity symbolism on Jan 12th) an overused idea (one I wouldn't dare use nowadays, even in passing) is used to prop up a story. In stories like on Jun 20th a decent enough idea comes to an innocuous end either because 365 words is too much or too little. And stories like the Jul 16th one simply don't have enough. But if an author paints himself into a corner where stories and even words can't be edited away, what do you expect? Of course, the book could have been shorter, but the format is more a marketing than literary device. By the end I'm not without admiration of the project as a whole for its width more than its depth, a width than could only have been demonstrated by a thick tome. Events like NaNoWriMo and its kin generate many bodies of work produced by quotas. I doubt whether many of those have as much sustained variety as this, even if there are few peaks. Of the story types I think I liked the "Jack" ones best. They could have been collected into a single booklet.
I wonder if all the reviewers are familiar with Flash or [Formalist] micro-fiction. 365 words is quite a generous limit, and except for one or two stories I didn't feel any sense of the language being under pressure.
December 3, 2014
An interesting experiment although maybe less interesting for us as the readers. Because of the nature of the experiment, some stories are more finished than others.
December 8, 2014
Turns out this is a pointless conceit.
May 18, 2015
**Paused at May 10**
April 3, 2016
Nice how some of the stories matched the month of the year.
Some stories were quickly forgotten while others have such an ending that it sticks with you quite a bit longer.
Some stories were quickly forgotten while others have such an ending that it sticks with you quite a bit longer.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews