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Member
Posts: 38
| For some reason, most of us are mainly novel readers. I have every intention to read this or that short story collection I hear about, but I keep pushing them back to the "oh yeah, one day I'll read them, absolutely, no doubt"-land.
This challenge should bring that "one day" a bit closer, but not too quickly - there's time until the end of 2017.
Anybody with similar issues is welcome to join me!
Only collections by the same author are eligible, so no anthologies, and no separate short stories or novellas (they already have their own challenges), but rereads are okay.
The photo on the banner is by the great Hungarian-American photographer Andre Kertesz who on 1971 published a whole book of photos called "On reading".
Knowing myself and knowing the pile of other books I have laying around, I'll get to this challenge in about a month or so, but at least it's made public now and I'll be thinking about it furiously (while reading novels). |
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Uber User
Posts: 613
Location: New Zealand | Nice. I finished all my challenges yesterday and was wondering what new challenges I could have for the second half of the year, and here you come with a good one. I too have trouble with short story collections. I'd much rather have a meaty novel, and I have so many short story collections gathering dust. Now I can get at least 12 of them read. |
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Member
Posts: 38
| Happy to be of service, even if only with measly 12 books! |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I have been trying to read a short story every day for the last two years, and so far this year I haven't missed a day. I've just come off a strong run of genre collections: Luminous by Greg Egan, Stories from the Quiet War by Paul McAuley, Apocalypses & Apostrophes by John Barnes and (for the 70s challenge) In the Hall of the Martian Kings (aka Persistence of Vision) by John Varley. The Barnes and Egan were old paperbacks I've had kicking around for years.
Obviously these were all before the challenge started, and I'm reading the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes right now. I'm not even sure how many single-author collections I have left, but I really ought to be able to manage 12 in the next 18 months. I'm not so keen on the review requirement - most of my collection and anthology reviews are variations on the theme "some of the stories are good, some of them aren't so good" - but I expect I'll manage. |
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Member
Posts: 38
| I thought about the review thing and how collection reviews indeed tend to be in the vein of "some of the stories are good, some of them aren't so good".
I don't want to lose the reviews, but I'll make them simpler: just tell us your favourite story in the collection.
I'll put it in the rules as well. |
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Uber User
Posts: 613
Location: New Zealand | Reading a story a day is a great way to tackle short story collections, DrNefario. I may try that myself. It will certainly make the books last longer. |
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Uber User
Posts: 613
Location: New Zealand | Finished my first collection - Young Woman in a Garden by Delia Sherman. I know I said I was going to try reading a story a day to make it last longer. I failed. To be fair, it did take me 5 days to read, which is unheard of for me, so I really did try.
Anyway, this was a great collection to start with. I totally fell in love with Delia Sherman's writing. I got suckered into this collection when I read the excerpt for 'Walpurgis Afternoon' on the books page here at WWEnd. I got to the end of the excerpt and had to know how it finished, so went out and bought the collection. I am so glad I did. Walpurgis Afternoon is the standout story from the collection, but there really wasn't anything that I thought was weak. |
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Member
Posts: 38
| Five days for one book - really, congratulations on constraint!
But see, that's why even short reviews are useful - I didn't know anything about Delia Sherman, but now (after some research) it's definitely going to my "one day"-list, it sounds really good. |
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Member
Posts: 38
| I finished my first two collections - "Trigger Warning" by Neil Gaiman and "Tales by Moonlight and Rain" by Ueda Akinari - but unfortunately it wasn't the good start I was hoping for. I often feel that I should like Gaiman more than I actually do, but this was sad. There were couple of stories I liked and one I loved, "A Calendar of Tales", but mostly I was just bored. I had planned to reread "American Gods" soon, but now.. I don't know.
The classical Japanese ghost tales by Ueda Akinari weren't bad in themselves, but they also weren't what I was expecting (something along the lines of classical Chinese ghost tales by Pu Songling). Yes, there are ghosts and spirits, but these are not very dreadful or scary stories. Once I got over that, I did enjoy their droll narration of ghost encounters.
Edited by piibald 2016-07-15 4:32 AM
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Uber User
Posts: 613
Location: New Zealand | Finished The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. Thought the first story was the best story in the book. Then I read the next story and thought that was the best in the book. Then I read the next one and... you get the picture. So I can't pick a best story because they were all the best story. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I finished my first collection the other day: Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories by Lucius Shepard. I think my favourite story was the long novella Human History, although they were all fairly strong, and some of them not very genre. |
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Uber User
Posts: 613
Location: New Zealand | Seventh collection finished - The Wandering Earth by Cixun Liu. I've given up even pretending I'm only going to do one story a day at this point. That ship has sailed.
So, back to The Wandering Earth, which I thought was excellent. Each story was more like a mini novel that a short story. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I finished my second collection: Manhattan in Reverse by Peter F Hamilton. Hamilton seems to have a capacity to infuriate me with idiot opinions while also writing enjoyable action SF that reminds me strongly of Robert A Heinlein, although their politics don't seem to have a lot in common. I think my favourite story was the first of the two novellas featuring Paula Myo from his Commonwealth universe, The Demon Trap. This is another long novella, which seems somewhat against the spirit of a short story challenge. I think it's partly down to the collections with novellas in them having fewer total stories, which is partly why I have finished them so soon. (I still have loads of stories to go in the novella-free Gwyneth Jones collection, Grazing the Long Acre.)
I don't know how the Commonwealth stories here relate to the novels, since I haven't read any of those, yet. |
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Member
Posts: 38
| I thought that this challenge will be more... well, challenging, but as it usually goes, reading about others reading good books, makes me want to read these same stories, too.
I almost took "Elephant vanishes" from the library today, unknown Lucius Shepard sounds intriguing, known but yet unread Cixin Liu the same.
The collection I did read - "Jagannath" by Karin Tidbeck - was wonderful. All my favourite stories - "Some letters for Ove Lindstrm", "Reindeer Mountain", "Pyret" - are about Swedish/Nordic folklore, but also about the non-mythological life in Swedish countryside which is all so recognizably Northern Europe-y and like home. She just has to say: "It was June" and I already know all the smells and sounds and white nights. It's nice to read about the fantastic in our own part of the world - makes the everyday surroundings a bit more special.
Also, she's a really good writer (and translator of her own work).
Edited by piibald 2016-08-01 2:22 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 273
Location: behind the 4th wall | When I joined this challenged, I did some searching to find authors similar to some of my favorite short story writers (including Aimee Bender and Karen Russell). I have had several collections added to the database and thought I would list them here for anyone who might be interested in reading them also.
At the Edge of Waking by Holly Phillips
Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips
Suspended Heart by Heather Fowler
Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill
The Unfinished World by Amber Sparks
The Entire Predicament by Lucy Corin
The Rental Heart by Kirsty Logan
My other two planned reads, which were already in the database, are
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Moscow But Dreaming by Ekaterina Sedia
I look forward to starting this challenge. Happy reading everyone!
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Uber User
Posts: 369
Location: Middle TN, USA | I came to this challenge late, but as the saying goes better than never! I just about finished Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi. |
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Veteran
Posts: 214
| I'm just starting this one myself. I'm rather enjoying Star Songs of an Old Primate by James Tiptree Jr., but I'm trying to make it through The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber so I can take it back to the library, which has the effect of keeping me from some amazing Tiptree prose! |
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Uber User
Posts: 369
Location: Middle TN, USA | Have you read The Screwfly solution. It was awesome. I'm not sure what my nect collection will be but I have several on my TBR list. |
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Member
Posts: 38
| Yes! Welcome to the new wave of challengers! It's always great to see all the different (or sometimes similar) books that everybody chooses to read for a challenge. |
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Uber User
Posts: 369
Location: Middle TN, USA | Holy crap on toast, Batman!! I just finished Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, and I was blown away. What an amazing collection of stories. Can't possibly recommend it more strongly. |
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Veteran
Posts: 214
| Badseedgirl - 2017-02-11 4:41 PM
Holy crap on toast, Batman!! I just finished Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, and I was blown away. What an amazing collection of stories. Can't possibly recommend it more strongly.
Okay! Clearly I have to run out and find a copy immediately!  |
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Veteran
Posts: 214
| So, finished Star Songs of an Old Primate. Loved it! Can't recommend it enough! Tiptree is a genius and her writing is creepy but fascinating, like watching a particularly interesting and colourful spider moving. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | I just finished Walter Mosley's Futureland to complete this challenge. Although I haven't done any of the review requirement. Maybe I'll come back to that.
I enjoyed the challenge. It wasn't a big stretch for me, since I've been reading a short story every day for a couple of years, now. In fact, I think I've maybe burned through enough of my backlog that I can stop that next year. |
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Regular
Posts: 62
| I completed this challenge today by finishing Le Guin's excellent The Wind's Twelve Quarters. Because I am doing three other WWE challenges, I opted to only read three collections. The other two were Starshine by Theodore Sturgeon and Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr... The Tiptree is probably the best collection of short stories I have read in my life. I began it by borrowing the book from the library but, after reading the first 3 or 4 stories, I returned it and bought myself a copy to keep.
Edited by ScoLgo 2017-07-26 12:31 AM
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Collections!