11/06 UPDATE: New Year’s Resolution

Posted on December 1, 2006 by John DeNardo in Books // 6 Comments

This is the November 2006 update of my New Year’s Resolution to (almost) read a short story a day.

QUICK STATS:
   STARTING SF-POINTS^©: 416
   SF-POINTS^© EARNED THIS MONTH: 39 (QUOTA: 30)
   YEAR-TO-DATE SF-POINTS^©: 455 (YTD QUOTA: 334)

PREVIOUS MONTHS:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
August
September
October

DATE READ	YEAR WRITTEN	STORY	AUTHOR	SOURCE	RATING	TYPE	POINTS	YTD POINTS
11/03/06	2006	“Escape from Earth”	Allen Steele	Escape from Earth edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois		NA	4	420
11/04/06	2006	“Where the Golden Apples Grow”	Kage Baker			NA	4	424
11/05/06	2006	“Derelict”	Geoffrey A. Landis			NA	4	428
11/07/06	2006	“Space Boy”	Orson Scott Card			NA	4	432
11/08/06	2006	“Incarnation Day”	Walter Jon Williams			NA	4	436
11/09/06	2006	“Combat Shopping”	Elizabeth Moon			NA	4	440
11/10/06	2006	“The Mars Girl”	Joe Haldeman			NA	4	444
11/24/06	1977	“Goodbye, Robinson Crusoe”	John Varley	The Good New Stuff edited by Gardner Dozois		NV	2	446
11/24/06	1982	“Swarm”	Bruce Sterling			NV	2	448
11/25/06	1985	“The Blind Minotaur”	Michael Swanwick			SS	1	449
11/28/06	1988	“The Blabber”	Vernor Vinge			NA	4	453
11/29/06	1989	“The Return of the Kangaroo Rex”	Janet Kagan			NV	2	455

KEY:VI=Vignette (.25 points), SS=Short Story (1 point), NV=Novelette (2 points), NA=Novella (4 points)

NOTE: Click the Source link to see the associated review.

Fred Kiesche // December 1, 2006 at 6:42 am //

I need to update my count. I was at 577 brute force several days ago.
:O

Fred Kiesche // December 1, 2006 at 6:48 am //

What is your “brute force” count? Just curious, seriously.
I’m finding that I’m doing this in “bursts”. I’m not doing a short a night, but I’ll do a batch, then go to something longer, then another burst, etc.

John // December 1, 2006 at 7:55 am //

I’m not tracker total story count as I go, but I will probably do so at a year-end summary next month. As a point of reference though, my story count was 229 in 2004.

Fred Kiesche // December 1, 2006 at 8:10 pm //

Just did a tally. 582, assuming I didn’t miss any for the month! I’m getting there…

John // December 1, 2006 at 8:33 pm //

Fred, are you getting these by reading complete anthologies? If so, how many books (anthologies and novels) a week do you read? It sounds like a lot! Or, are you reading disparate stories, one downloaded from here…another read randomly from some other source…making it harder to track? Just wondering…
For myself, the large majority of stories are from reading complete anthologies. I pulled a small handful of stories – probably less than 5 – from anthologies I have yet to complete. I average about a book (novel/anthology) a week. (Klausner, I am not.) The count is probably less for 2006 having read a couple of larger-than-average-length books.

Fred Kiesche // December 2, 2006 at 8:37 pm //

I am reading a mixture of complete standalones (usually from Fictionwise, or Memoware), magazines (Analog, Asimov’s, F&SF, Universe) and anthologies.
Books YTD is around 62. Recall that I simultaneously read many books. I’ll probably end the year in the middle of six or so.
If I were Klausner it would be one book per hour or better.