Scott Lays Down the Gauntlet

I was texting (via Skype) with the good folks over at SFFaudio a few weeks ago: Jesse, Tamahome, and Jenny. I noted that Jenny was approaching 200 books read in 2012. 200! Being an envious sort of guy, I jokingly said, "I bet I could read 200 short stories in a year. Ha."

A few minutes later, that became "Hey! I bet I could read 200 short stories next year!"

After fierce negotiations with the brain trust behind Reading Envy, here I am. Terms will not be disclosed, other than my goal: To read as many short stories as Jenny reads books in 2013.

This blog likes a good list (and I do too), so I made a list of short stories that I want to read. It's cobbled together from a list of award-winning stories that I've been meaning to finish, the contents of some collections I want to read (like The Best of Gene Wolfe and Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor), and some outside suggestions. After the list was complete, I randomized it because that's exactly the kind of thing I do. The result? A list of 313 novellas, novelettes, and short stories.

I'm sure I'll edit that list this year, and I won't stick exclusively to it, either. How could I, with things like Analog and Lightspeed Magazine coming out every month? And there are Hugo Award nominees to read this summer.

The contract says that I should post more or less weekly to keep Reading Envy up-to-date on my progress. I plan to comply because the stated penalty involves "No Books For Me" for a frightening length of time. *shudder*

First up? "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I'm hoping that Jenny hasn't started yet. Someone distract her with something shiny!
 
 
A few words about me: I'm Scott D. Danielson - I use the D in the middle because there are a few of us Scott Danielsons haunting the internet. I'm co-founder of SFFaudio, I co-host a podcast called A Good Story is Hard to Find, and I published a short story of my own a while back.

I'm on Twitter, Google+, and Goodreads. I'm also on Letterboxd - a bit like Goodreads but for movies.