As November’s reads settle out, the 2010’s reading challenges fall into line, and in quiet moments I am reflecting on the reading year and making bookish plans for 2011.
You know how it is? How many bookish promises we readers make to ourselves, before the reader’s fickle gaze shifts to another paged beauty?
In December I’ll be finishing up a few lingering challenge reads, but mostly I’ll be making plans.
One thing that I’m planning to begin in January is a short story reading project. I want to read through a Canadian author’s short fiction, from start-to-now.
Not so quickly that the stories become a blur, but not so slowly that I can’t appreciate the interconnections between the stories either. Maybe a story each week, if they’re long, like some of Alice Munro’s are. Maybe two, if they’re short, like some of Carol Shields’ stories are. About 30 pages a week, I’m thinking.
Alice Munro. Carol Shields. Margaret Atwood. Mavis Gallant. Alistair MacLeod. Timothy Findley. Authors for whom short fiction was not something casually produced, at the one-off request of an editor. Authors whose short stories are multi-layered and as complex as novels. I’m already planning to read collections of stories by contemporary writers, so for this I have an eye to the traditional, canonical-ish Canlit stories.
Is it possible? To read all the way from Dance of the Happy Shades through Too Much Happiness? Or from The Other Paris through Going Ashore? I’m not sure. Whether some are rereads or not, it’s still a lot of reading. And a long commitment.
But I’m sure I’d more likely succeed if I had company, so I thought I’d ask all of you if you’d given any thought to a project like this?
November’s Random Stats:
Book Read, Most Likely to Reread – Laura Miller’s The Magician’s Book
(I’ve already reread sections of it countless times)
Book Read, Least Likely to Reread – Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts
Most disconcerting read – Jane Gardam’s The Queen of the Tambourine
Most recommendable read – Cynthia Flood’s The English Stories
Token Non-fiction – Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma
[…] Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades (1968) I Back at the beginning of December, the idea of reading Alice Munro’s stories from the beginning, through her most recent collection, Too Much […]
I’m so glad that some of you find this interesting. I realize it’s a particularly obsessive task to take on, but am pleased that some of you might like to join in for a story or two or, maybe even a collection or two. As I firm up 2011’s Reading Plans, I will put together a try-and-see schedule (I’m still leaning towards Munro and she’s written a lot of stories) and would love, love, love to have even a little company on this one. Thanks so much!
This year, I read 100 short stories. I intend to continue the challenge next year. I’m also think about reading some Munro.
This is a calling to me to read short stories. Although I’ve made plan to read 20th century novels in 2011, I can fit short stories into the plan. Count me in! 🙂
I love short stories but I can’t ever do challenges because my mood is always changing and I tend to stray from the agenda!
I couldn’t ever read Alice Munro from start to finish. But Carol Shields I could, probably, if I didn’t get distracted by anything else!
I have never been a big short story reader, so I’m hesitant to commit to something like this. I might, however, be interested in reading a few of them. Perhaps you could do an approximate schedule, or announce upcoming reads, so that people could join you as they were able?
I love reading short stories. A few years back I did this exact thing–read one story a week and posted on it on Sunday. I was more random in my choosing, though–whatever appealed at the moment. I’ve been meaning to do more short story reading, so I might be tempted to join you–but I’m awful at challenges (sticking with them that is). I keep telling myself I am going to keep it really simple in 2011, but my list of things to read seems to keep getting longer… 🙂