Short Story Reading Challenge

I enjoy short stories, although my history of reading them tends to be recent.  I remember reading and enjoying them in my 10th grade high school English class, but did not pick them up again for another 30 years.  I re-discovered short stories a couple of years ago, when I read one of Ray Bradbury's numerous short story collections, The Cat's Pajamas.  That was soon followed by Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find, which packed more punch in a few pages than most novels ever dream to accomplish.  I was hooked and have been reading short stories ever since.

Kate S. of  Kate's Book Blog and moderator of A Curious Singularity (an online short story group), is hosting the Short Story Reading Challenge beginning January 1 through December 31, 2008.  She outlines several reading options to fit the needs of participants:

Options 1 & 2: If you’re short on time, you can simply commit to reading ten short stories by ten different authors over the course of 2008. If you’re relatively new to reading short stories, any ten will do. If you’ve already got a lot of short stories under your belt, make it ten short stories by ten writers whose work you have not yet read.

Options 3 & 4: If you’ve got a bit more time to devote to this endeavour, you can commit to reading between five and ten short story collections over the course of 2008. Again, if you’re a short story novice, the world is your oyster as far as selection is concerned. But if you’re a seasoned short story reader, you’ll want to choose collections by writers whose short stories you have not yet encountered.

Option 5: This is the custom option under the rubric of which you can tailor your reading list to best meet your personal reading aspirations. You might wish to craft a list that focuses on a particular place, or era, or genre. Or you might wish to include reading about short stories as well as of short stories, for example, such works as Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story. It’s entirely up to you.

Since I had already selected some short story collections for my 2008 reading list, I figured a few more won't hurt me.  So I will opt for option 4 which is to read between 5 and 10 short story collections.  I do read short stories on a regular basis, so I have picked collections I own by authors I have not read.  My selections are:

• Island: The Complete Stories by Alastair MacLeod (also for the Canadian Book Challenge)
• The Collected Stories of Nicolai Gogol by Nicolai Gogol (also for the Russian Reading Challenge)
• Transparency by Frances Hwang (also for The_Book_Place)
• There Are Jews in My House by Lara Vapnyar (also for the Russian Reading Challenge)
• The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A. S. Byatt (also for the Unread Authors Challenge)
• The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky (also for the Russian Reading Challenge)
• The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett
• Later the Same Day by Grace Paley
• CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
• A Relative Stranger: Stories by Charles Baxter

I am really looking forward to this!

Comments

[Literary Feline]

I will be curious to read your thoughts on all your choices for this challenge. I don't often read short stories, I admit, preferring full length novels, but I am going to join in on this challenge too. Spread my wings, so to speak.

[Mary Cavanagh]

Hi Sharon

Remember me? I wondered if you would like a copy of The Sixpenny Debt and Other Oxford Stories? This is a short story anthology produced (self published) by thirteen members of The Oxford Writers group (OWG) We have been very succesful in selling it, mostly to bookshops and tourist outlets in our beautiful city. A second volume is planned for the spring, and we are delighted that our foreword will be written by Colin Dexter, author of the fantastic Inspector Morse books. Do you get the Inspector Morse TV episodes in the USA - if not you've missed a a treat.

A very Happy New Year to you and all your readers

Mary Cavanagh

[daphne sayed]

sharon Do I need another Challenge no but I'm joining in. I'll begin with some Chekhov, then Katherine Mansfield.Have a much better08 than this year has been.

[Ex Libris]

Literary Feline: Glad you are going to join in the challenge! I'll look forward to your thoughts, too.

Mary: Hi! Of course I remember you :) I would love a copy of the Oxford Stories collection - thank you very much! We do have Inspector Morse here. The series is shown on PBS, which is the same venue for many of your wonderful programs. I will send you an e-mail shortly.

Daphne: So glad you are going to do this! I've gone off the deep end as far as challenges are concerned, but I don't care - I love it! Wishing you the very best for the new year - I hope 2008 is a much better one for you :)

[Mary Cavanagh]

Great to hear from you Sharon, and I'll be emailing you in a minute. Just to add my two pennorth, I did a dissertation on The Short Story when I was at Teacher Training College. My favourites were Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party, (Daughters of the Late Colonel and Life of Ma Parker) Somerset Maughan (The Kite) and D.H.Lawrence (The Prussian Officer and (I think) The Rocking Horse Winner).

I think I will be joining in as well to go through all these gems again.

Love M

[Cathrine]

enjoy :-))))

and happy new year !

[Becca]

I've never been much of a short story reader, but am taking up this challenge in hopes of sparking an interest in this genre. Thanks for the recommendations to add to my (ever growing!) list of choices.

I plan to read five short story collections, and five individual stores by different authors.

[Lindy]

I just discovered short stories and would love to join. I do not hae a blog Lindy