I grew up just reading whatever I could pull off the shelf from my local library—finding the SFF short story scene in my late teens was a huge and welcome disco

I grew up just reading whatever I could pull off the shelf from my local library—finding the SFF short story scene in my late teens was a huge and welcome discovery. Not sure why, and it could just be confirmation bias, but in my experience the quality of writing in short stories tends to be a lot higher than the writing in a novel, or series. Short form has some of my favorite works now, and I tend to read that first since it's much easier to make time for. It's really worth looking into it if you've only been exposed to published novels before. Tor.com is free and has a great collection. Clarkesworld and Asimov's both charge subscription fees but are completely worth the price.