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Regular
Posts: 54
| Discussion and resources for the 2015 Short Fiction Reading Challenge. |
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Uber User
Posts: 794
| Your link doesn't go to the Challenge and I don't see the Challenge on the list. |
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Regular
Posts: 54
| justifiedsinner - Your link doesn't go to the Challenge and I don't see the Challenge on the list.
Sorry about that! There seems to be a bug preventing me from editing the challenge, so it's still set to private and I can't change that right now. (Unless the link to edit a challenge got moved to a more obscure location and I'm just missing it?!) I submitted an error report, so hopefully it'll all get straightened out soon. |
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Regular
Posts: 54
| And we're public now! For anyone participating in this challenge, the 2014 Short Fiction Reading Challenge discussion thread includes a huge list of eligible works in the WWEnd database that various members contributed to the discussion. If you're uncertain about what you want to read and are looking for inspiration, that thread is a great place to start. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I might be in for this. I'm trying to read a short story a day this year. So far I've only missed one day, but on the other hand several of the things I've been reading aren't in the DB. I can fix that, but it might get annoying. |
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Admin
Posts: 4005
Location: Dallas, Texas | I updated last year's challenge banner and applied it to your challenge. If you want something different you can replace or let me know and I'll help you come up with a new one. |
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Regular
Posts: 54
| DrNefario - I'm trying to read a short story a day this year. So far I've only missed one day, but on the other hand several of the things I've been reading aren't in the DB.
Well, color me impressed. That's awesome! (And perhaps something I should consider doing myself. I've been reading very little short fiction lately, and I'd like to change that.) Are you reading mostly from anthologies, or single author collections, or magazines, or...?
Administrator - I updated last year's challenge banner and applied it to your challenge.
That looks perfect. Thank you so much! |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | Mostly collections and anthologies, so far. I tend to download a few ebook collections to my phone so I can read a short story wherever I get some spare time.
The tricky part is finding stories that are the right length. I had a spell of reading Agatha Christie stories last year, and they were perfect, about 20 minutes long. Most modern SF stories seem to be a fair bit longer than that. I'm two stories into Pump Six and Other Stories right now, and they were both about 45 minutes, I'd estimate. There are some nice short ones in The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (not (yet) in the DB), but what I've mainly learned from that so far is that I don't much like steampunk. |
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Veteran
Posts: 111
Location: Austin, Tx | Welp...joined another challenge, midway into February... since I realized I had two short story collections already in my queue for other challenges.
So far, I have already started Despatches From the Frontiers of the Female Mind, which is all women authors and on the SF Mistressworks list. I am loving it quite a lot and it inspired me to keep better track of my thoughts on individual stories (I tend to forget which stories I liked and disliked and to have a hard time reviewing collections).
Next year I have sworn not to schedule my entire year's worth of reading and to set myself the challenge of a short story a day, so I'm treating this as a warm up. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I decided to upgrade to the full 12, since I've just finished my sixth book - the mostly excellent Kelly Link collection Stranger Things Happen. I'm still managing a story a day, so, essentially I get through a collection every couple of weeks. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | Well, I've finished the reading for this one, but I haven't written a single review. I find it quite tricky to review collections and anthologies, since it's normally the case that I like some stories and don't like others. It's quite rare for me to have a coherent opinion about a whole collection. I should probably try to review the MR James and Kelly Link collections, I think. They are the two that seemed to have a consistent flavour.
Since I'm still reading a short story a day, I might swap in some later books if I like them more than the ones I currently have. (I've just started Zima Blue by Al Reynolds, for instance, and I've really loved the first two stories.) |
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2015 Short Fiction Reading Challenge