# books in which a chapter could be a complete short story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2020, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694 "2020-02-29T05:52:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694/41 "2020-03-10T21:05:56Z")
Also from the OP’s novel: I thought the chapter in _The Grapes of Wrath_ with the tortoise attempting to cross the highway worked well as a stand-alone story. The first book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, began life as a fix up of 5 previously published stories. The original version is more episodic, and I always liked _The Slow Mutants_ as a stand-alone story. The revised edition makes the story more linear with a more pronounced through line and is more consistent with the later books. Neil Gaiman’s “The Witch’s Headstone” chapter of his Young Adult novel _The Graveyard Book_ has been published separately in at least two anthologies. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694/42 "2020-03-12T00:14:44Z")
There is a chapter in House of Leaves (Mark Danielewski) where the children are talking to the father about echos in the house that could structurally stand on it’s own as a short horror story. I’d have to hunt it down and read it again to see if the dread comes across still not reading any of the earlier material. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694/43 "2020-03-12T01:54:31Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > [Code of the Lifemaker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_Lifemaker). The prologue chapter is the story of a damaged replicating probe that landed on Titan in pre-history and eventually through a series of events evolved into an entire mechanical ecosystem. It can and has been published as a stand-alone story. Brother! I love that book! Still have my 1st edition hardcover from the SFBC! I’ll toss in Phillip Pullman’s _La Belle Sauvage_ twice: Chapter 21 (The Enchanted Island) - where a fairy named Diania tries to keep Baby Lyra as her own. Chapter 22 (Resin) - where our intrepid travelers encounter a very strange garden party. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694/44 "2020-03-12T03:02:25Z")
One of my favorites is chapter 8 of _M_A_S_H Goes To Maine.\* It’s mostly a letter Hawkeye writes to the editor of the _Maine Medical Journal_, who had asked Hawkeye if he might be interested in writing an article about carcinoma of the trachea. Instead Hawkeye writes a story about an old family friend/patient he treated for carcinoma of the trachea. I’ve read the book twice, but I’ve reread that chapter many times. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694/45 "2020-03-12T17:34:27Z")
My memory… is there something in The Princess Bride? Something about torture? MiM [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-in-which-a-chapter-could-be-a-complete-short-story/848694.md?page=2)