December Challenge: Advent Calendar

[cersei]

A sounds like fun! I decided to do something I regret not doing when I was younger and that was read classics! I have decided to read someone who has impacted literature for the greater good because I'm Sherlocked, I decided on getting some sherlock short stories in here! This should be interesting to read in between classes or on my way to/from work!

Edgar Allan Poe (all these were from poestories.com)
1. The Tell-Tale Heart
2. The Balloon Hoax
3. Berenice
4. The Black Cat
5. The Angel of the Odd
6. The Cask of Amontillado
7. A descent into the Maelstrom
8. Eleonora
9. William Wilson
10. The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether
11. The Spectacles
12. The Oval Portrait
13. The Pit and the Pendulum
14. The Premature Burial

Arthur Conan Doyle
15. A Scandal in Bohemia
16. The Red-headed League
17. A Case of Identity
18. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
19. The Five Orange Pips
20. The Man with the Twisted Lip
21. The blue Carbuncle
22. The Speckled Band
23. The Engineer's Thumb
24. The Noble Bachelor

[Sam]

Im in for 25. I got a book of short stories with 25 stories. Hope thats ok

Learning to Kill

1. First Offense
2. Kid Kill
3. See Him Die
4. The Molested
5. Carrera's Woman
6. Dummy
7. Good And Dead
8. Death Flight
9. Kiss Me, Dudley
10. Small Homicide
11. Still Life
12. Accident Report
13. Chinese Puzzle
14. The Big Day
15. Runaway
16. Downpour
17. Eye Witness
18. Every Morning
19. The Innocent One
20. Chalk
21. Associatin Test
22. Bedbug
23. The Merry Merry Christmas
24. On The Sidewalk Bleeding
25. The Last Spin

25/25

[Blagica , Challenges]

I found a novel with 24 chapters so i would like to do that along with the 20 anthology stories if that is ok?

[Karina]

Added all!

Sam and Blagica: No problems :)

[Renee]

I'm in! I want to read a poem a day - I never read poetry and this seems like a fun way to get into it.

So far, I've checked out Dark Sparkler and A Book of Nonsense - More Nonsense. If I need more, I will check out some more.

I'll list the poems as I read them below. I will probably update once a week:

ADVENT CALENDAR CHALLENGE
Duration: December 1 - December 31, 2015

Progress: 24/ 24
1. Book of Nonsense: #1- 50
2. Book of Nonsense: #51 - 112 (that went faster than expected)
3. Dark Sparkler: Li Tobler
4. Dark Sparkler: Untitled Actress & Thelma Todd
5. Dark Sparkler: Miriam Lebelle
6. Dark Sparkler: Judith Barsi
7. Dark Sparkler: Peg Entwistle
8. Dark Sparkler: Jean Harlow
9. Dark Sparkler: Martha Anne Dae
10. Dark Sparkler: Jayne Mansfield
11. Dark Sparkler: Carole Landis & Anissa Jones
12. Dark Sparkler: Susan Peters
13. Dark Sparkler: Dominque Dunne
14. Dark Sparkler: Sirkka Sair
15. Dark Sparkler: Cindy Jenkins
16. Dark Sparkler: Brittany Murphy
17. Dark Sparkler: Bridgette Anderson
18. Dark Sparkler: Shannon Michelle Wilsey & Jane Doe
19. Dark Sparkler: Heather O'Rourke & Abigail Nell & Lupe Velez
20. Dark Sparkler: Tarumi Sachdev, Julia Thorp & Sharon Tate


11/28 update: the poems got too depressing, so i finished the rest of them in about a day, before my family showed up for christmas visits. For the last four days of the challenge, i read short SF stories from The 1986 Annual World's Best SF, which was a lot more fun!
21. Earthgate - J. Brian Clark
22. On the Dream Channel Panel - Ian Watson
23. The Gods of Mars - Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann, Miachel Swanwick
24. The Jaguar Hunter - Lucius Shepard

Challenge Completed!

Thank you for hosting this challenge!

[ChrisR]

I'd like to join in. I'll be reading a short story for each day.


1. A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
2. The Waters of Meribah by Tony Ballantyne
3. A Hyperborean Brew by Jack London
4. The Turkey Season by Alice Munro
5. Of Mice and Men by David Sedaris
6. Bread and Bombs by M. Rickert
7. Rogue Farm by Charles Stross
8. The Egg by Andy Weir
9. Christmas at Thompson Hall Anthony Trollope
10. Tenth of December by George Saunders
11. Birth Days by Geoff Ryman
12. A Night on the Barbary Coast by Kage Baker
13. The Louis-d'Or by François Coppée
14. The Ghost of Christmas Eve by J.M. Barrie
15. Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets by Ruth McEnery Stuart
16. McAllister's Christmas by Arthur Train
17. The Little Match-Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
18. Christmas Eve on Lonesome by John Fox Jr.
19. The Christmas Dinner by Washington Irving
20. How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar by Bret Harte
21. Christmas; Or, The Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe
22. A Christmas Eve Surprise by Lilian Quiller Couch
23. A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
24. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

[Nicole]

I'll go with Option A- all 24- (I'm probably going to go with poems- at least until I'm on break and have more time) & I'll go by Nicole W.!

1. Now Winter Nights Enlarge by Thomas Campion.
2. In drear-nighted December by John Keats
3. The Cold Heaven by William Butler Yeats
4. Winter Heavens by George Meredith
5. In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti
6. To Winter by William Blake
7. Dust of Snow & Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
8. Voronezh by Anna Akhmatova (*Warning for Autoplay*)
9. Frost At Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
10. Little Tree by E.E. Cummings
11. When the Year Grows Old by Edna St. Vincent Millay
12. Sonnet to Winter by Emily Chubbuck Judson
13. Horoscope by Maureen N. McLane
14. On Seeing a Tuft of Snowdrops in a Storm by William Wordsworth
15. Winter Study by Mark Wunderlich
16. Noel by Anne Porter
17. Toward the Winter Solstice by Timothy Steele
18. The Shivering Beggar by Robert Graves
19. Noel: Christmas Eve 1913 by Robert Bridges
20. "Mommy's Favorite" by Joe DeRouen from Mistletoe Magic: A Christmas Anthology
21. Holidays by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
22. Christmas Trees by Robert Frost
23. The Savior must have been a docile Gentleman by Emily Dickinson
24. A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore
25. The Pine Tree by Haidji
26. Winter Leafage by Edith Matilda Thomas
27. "Bianca," "Girl on Porch With Puppy," "Autumn Journey," "Marié, Ten Years Later," "A Drunken Dream," & "Hanshin: Half-God" by Moto Hagio from A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
28. "Angel Mimic," "Iguana Girl," "The Child Who Comes Home," & "The Willow Tree" by Moto Hagio from A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
29. Never Ever by Brenda Shaughnessy
30. Heavy Snowfall in a Year Gone Past by Laura Jensen
31. A Good Year Down by Jeni Olin; Meditations on the Fall and Winter Holidays by Charles Reznikoff; Elegy in Joy [excerpt] by Muriel Rukeyser; New year’s morning by Carl Adamshick

Goal Met So Far: 31/24 31

[Karina]

You're all added to the list!

Now I'm going to go brew the tea from my tea calendar and read my chosen first story, Aliette de Bodard's Of Books, and Earth, and Courtship. :)

[Lulu]

Updated message #34

1/24

Finished my story today ("Adaptation" out of Connie Willis' collection of Christmas stories). This one was sweet, with Willis' signature characters that always have some quirk or another. The author character, however, was painfully cliché. Still, very seasonal and definitely gets me in the mood for Christmas.

[Sam]

Read my first short story. "First Offense" from the book Learning to Kill

1/25

[Debra]

So excited to do this challenge! Thank you for bringing it to us :)

1/24

[ChrisR]

First door opened
December 1

[Sam F]

How would you like us to update if we are reading parts/chapters in one book? I finished my first one! It doesn't seem to fit the list of titles format that the short stories/poems do.

1/24

[Alisia]

Please count me in for 24 short stories/poems! Thank you Karina for the links to suggestions! That definitely helps :)

[Ragna]

I´m in and would like the short story option, let´s say 25 of them.
And if anyone can point me in the direction of free short stories online, thank you :)

[Erika]

I just saw this and I love it! I'm a big short story fan, so I'm in for 24 short stories!

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I'm in for 24, option A. (Huge thanks for that Seanan McGuire link, Karina. She is the queen of short stories!)

[Anna]

I'm in for 24 on Option A. Poetry and Short Stories. Sounds good.

2/24 as of 12/2.

1. "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation" by Stephen King from The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
2. Terzanelle for the pilgrimage to Rosedale. Poem by Maryann Corbett from Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter: Poems

[Cobwebs-in-Space-Ice]

I didn't see this till midnight Dec. 2, so my challenge is Dec. 2-Dec. 25.
1 short story per day, + 1/24 novel

2016 Advent Challenge

Thanks to other participants, I remember I own The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, which I purchased, and a review copy (overdue TBR) of Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances.

Bird Box
43 chapters, so I'll read 2/day. That's a TBR read for me.
Finished BIRD BOX Dec. 22 (1 chapter)
The Haunted Bookshop, Dec. 22-25


Option B: 24/24 and
Option A: 24/24

Short Stories:
Introduction, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
Mile 81
Premium Harmony
Pickman's Model
"Ashputtle," by Peter Straub, in Interior Darkness: Selected Stories
"The Bone Church" by Stephen King (poem, 2008 revision)
"Dead in Damascus" by Stephen Templin, ARC, release date Dec. 9
The Dune
"The Bear Trap," Paul Doiron, original short story at http://www.criminalelement.com/storie...
"Oral Argument," by Kim Stanley Robinson, at tor.com
"The Log Goblin," by Brian Staveley at Tor.com
"Hypnos," by HPL (Tor.com Lovecraft Reread)
Where the Trains Turn: A Tor.Com Original
The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model
The Last Boy: An Alternative Pan Short Story
A Visit to the House on Terminal Hill: A Tor.Com Original
Overtime
A Zombie Christmas
"Her First New Year's Resolutions. Ever." By Simon Kewin. [Flash]
The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury
"Taming of the Christmas Tree, That Proud and Mischievous Creature," by Leena Likitalo, at Daily Science Fiction, 12/18/2015. What a neat story!
"Glorious Dilapidation," by Maynard Sims, from the collection Death's Sweet Echo, Dec. 3 publication
Christmas Carol: A short and sweet story of hope, love, and the spirit of Christmas
"Nathaniel" by Mary Ogle at DailyScienceFiction.com
"The Workshop at the End of the World" by Kristin Janz, at DailyScienceFiction.com
"The Remnant" by Cassie Beasley at DailyScienceFiction.com
"Pumping Iron With Santa," by Sania Dorie, DailyScienceFiction.com. great story!!
"A Modest Proposal" by Dave D'Alessio, DailyScienceFiction.com. really super story!!

Challenge completed, but I'll continue to read The Haunted Bookshop, 2 chapters a day, till i complete it, and i'm going to keep the short-story-a-day habit.

[frugalitymom]

Sign me up for option A.

I have Agatha Christie's The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding which a set of short stories in my pile this month plus My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories to read that I'm starting first.

1. Midnight - Rainbow Rowell
2. The Lady and the Fox - Kelly Link
3. Angels in the Snow - Matt de la Peña
4. Polaris is Where You'll Find Me - Jenny Han
5. It's A Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown - Stephanie Perkins
6. Your Temporary Santa - David Levithan
7. Krampuslauf - Holly Black
8. What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth - Gayle Forman
9. Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus - Myra McEntire
10. Welcome to Christmas, CA - Kiersten White
11. Star of Bethlehem- Ally Carter
12. The Girl Who Wole the Dreamer - Laini Taylor

David Sedaris
13. SantaLand Diaries
14. Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family
15. Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol
16. Based Upon A True Story
17. Christmas Means Giving
18. Dinah, the Christmas Whore
19. Jesus Shaves
20. Us and Them
21. Let It Snow
22.
23.
24.

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

Just got back from a week with family in California and saw this challenge. On December 1st I listened to a bit over 2 hours of The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. The audiobook runs a total of 50 hours, so I actually listened to 1/24 of the book. That would be one possibility for option #2.

The other book I started on December 1st was Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez on my Kindle. This was my travel read, and I got over 1/2 of the book read, so that won't work.

What would be much more in the spirit of this challenge would be to read selections from three Delphi Christmas Collections that I own. Each of the stories is a classic, with writers including Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Thackeray, Alcott, Gaskell, and more. I could double up on the 2nd and read at least one a day for the rest of the month. Would that work?

[Karina]

Sam F: For the sliced-up-novel option, I think you can update similar to the short story option! If you've decided to read your novel in 24 parts, and you've read 2 of them, "2/24" is fine. :)

Theresa-OctoberLace: Yes, that works! Come back and specify if you're doing option A or B or both. :)

Amy (Other Amy): Seanan McGuire is awesome! I have a bunch of anthologies of stories on my kindle that I bought on sale mostly just because they contain a single story of hers, hah.

Mallory Heart: Oh, nice! Bird Box is on my TBR too, I hope you like it.

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

I'll join in with Option A, reading one or two stories a day from Delphi Christmas Collection, volumes I, II, and III.

1. A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens
2. The Heavenly Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[Reija]

ADVENT CALENDAR CHALLENGE
Duration: December 1 - December 31, 2015

A) Starting on Dec. 1 and ending on Dec. 24, read a short story (or a poem!) every day. Use stories or poems from collections, magazines, or the internet - there's lot of good short fiction available for free from many publishers.

I'll be reading
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King* and
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman+.

Advent calendar

1. Jerusalem+
2. Premium Harmony*
3. Click-Clack the Rattlebag+
4. Batman and Robin Have an Altercation*
5. The Dune*, An Invocation of Incuriousity+
6. Bad Little Kid*
7. A Death*
8. The Bone Church*
9. “And Weep, Like Alexander”+
10. Morality*, Nothing O’Clock+
11. Pearls: A Fairy Tale+
12. Kether to Malkuth+, Feminine Endings+, Observing the Formalities+
13. The Sleeper and the Spindle+
14. Afterlife*
15. Tommy*
16. Black Dog+
17. Ur+
18. Herman Wouk is Still Alive+
19. Under the Weather* Blockade Billy*
20. Mister Yummy*
21. The Little Green God of Agony*
22. That Bus is Another World* Obits*
23. Drunken Fireworks* Summer Thunder*

24. The Fir Tree by Tove Jansson

24/24 **DONE

[Karina]

Theresa~OctoberLace: Added you!

Great choices, Reija! I want to read that Stephen King collection too. :)

I just noticed the short story collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances won Best Fantasy in the GR awards!

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Karina wrote: "Amy (Other Amy): Seanan McGuire is awesome! I have a bunch of anthologies of stories on my kindle that I bought on sale mostly just because they contain a single story of hers, hah."

I am in the exact same boat :)

Speaking of Tor, if anyone is looking for a good source of free stories in the fantasy and scifi vein, check out the free shorts from Tor.com:

http://www.tor.com/category/all-ficti...

These are original short stories, mostly stand alone although a few are in existing series, and can be browsed by genre; you can also sort by author. Most of the ones I've read are very good.

For contemporary fiction, there is always The New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/fic...

They are very hit or miss for me, but I loved Ghosts and Empties earlier this year.

[Lulu]

Updated message #34 - Completed 2/24

Finished The Colonel by Peter Watts, which is a short story that belongs between the two books in his Firefall series. I left it far too long to really get much from it, but it was still nice to revisit that universe.

[Blagica , Challenges]

Naked part of anthology 1/20
Crazy Bitch 1/24 chap

[Jane]

Updated message 50.

1/24 "Willing" by Lorrie Moore (Birds of America)

2/24 "The Ice Palace" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jazz Age Stories)

[Sam]

2/25 Kid Kill

[Clare]

updated message 11 - 2 stories read

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I've decided to up my challenge to 31, and I'm doing option A for stories and a separate option A for poems. I think I'll post as I go and then post the full lists as a final post.

Yesterday I read:

Stories 12/1: "In Skeleton Leaves" by Seanan McGuire, published in Operation Arcana

Stories: 1/31

Poems 12/1: Living by Denise Levertov

Poems 1/31

[Cassandra]

Yesterday I read Some Gods of El Paso: A Tor.Com Original (full text here). I gave it three stars.

1/31

Also, I'm picking up my short story collections from the library today, so I'm excited to get started with those.

[Debra]

2/24

[Cobwebs-in-Space-Ice]

Msg 69 updated:) what a great challenge!

[Anna]

Edited msg 68. 2/24.

[Cassandra]

Last night I read a couple of stories from The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories:
Sorry to Disturb
Comma

2/31

[Sam]

Read my third story, :)

3/25

[Karina]

You're all doing great and reading interesting things! :)

My story for today was China Miéville's "In the slopes" - not my favourite from the Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories collection so far, but still a beautiful read.

[Clare]

Updated message 11.
Thanks for the link to Tor, I took a look and found my third story The Ghosts of Christmas Paul Cornell - an interesting read
http://www.tor.com/2012/12/19/the-gho...

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Dec 2 story: "Reading List" by McGuire in Temporally Out of Order

Dec 2 poem: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Dec 3 story: Some Gods of El Paso: A Tor.Com Original (I also gave it three stars, Cassandra.)

Dec 3 poem: anyone lived in a pretty how town by e.e. cummings (One of my all time favorites.)

3/31 and 3/31

[[deleted user]]

3/24

[Patricia]

I'm a bit late in joining in (only just signed into goodreads after a long pause), so I'll opt for option b with a book I already had on the shelf and breaks up almost evenly (taking into account my delay): Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki by H. Murakami. It has 19 chapters, so I'll try break it evenly for the advent calendar.

[Lulu]

Updated message #34

Completed 3/24

I finished 57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides by Sam J. Miller, which won the Shirley Jackson Award winner for short story. I loved the form, and how the darkness slowly crept into it. And the message that what we desire sometimes comes at a sacrifice for the things we really need.

[Blagica , Challenges]

i am at 2/20 and 2/24 i do my reading for this challenge before bed so it will be 3 for 3 in the morning

[Cobwebs-in-Space-Ice]

Updated message 69:)

[Mell]

I have completed 3/31. I will update my message as I finish each book of essays :)

[Sam F]

I've read 3/24 for my book so far. Couldn't post yesterday but I think it's ok to post every other day. Let me know if it's not. Thanks!

[Debra]

3/24

[Stefani - SpelingExpirt]

I'm on 4/24.
So far I have read Hello, Hello by Seanan McGuire. The Machine Starts by Greg Bear. Skin in the Game by Elizabeth Bear and Machine Learning by Nancy Kress.