A tale of three tales

I just noticed that reading three short stories at one stretch tires me more than reading half a novel. I think it has something to do with the range of emotions you traverse across in three short stories. How else would you explain the feeling of fatigue after reading 3 stories consisting of 12-15 pages each, while I have sometimes read as many as a 100 pages of a novel without feeling a thing.

I was reading a book of short stories by Jack London.Three stories down, I was emotionally exhausted. I had gone from happiness to excitement, to dejection, to elation all within the 12 pages of one story. Three stories later, I lay spent. It was almost as if I lived the life of the characters I had read about.

What else could it be. I consider myself pretty emotionally strong. I have weathered storms that would make a lesser man shrivel up and die. Physical abuse, mental torment, battery and assault. Peer pressure, I've sailed through all of them and emerged unscathed. But three short stories have humbled me.

Is another's burden heavier than one's own. Or is the time factor to be blamed.

While reading a short story, in 15 minutes, you relive all the emotions that the character did in a month. So the effect on you is more profound.

Is that it? Are short stories a more powerful medium than 600 page epic novels?