365 welcome

Well, here’s another one of my crazy personal projects.  I plan on reading 1 short story a day for an entire year, starting May 1st.  I’m calling it 365...but its really 366 with February 29th popping up late in the project.  

I feel that with all my reading, the short story genre is somewhat lacking.  Although a quick look back at my Goodreads lists make me realize I’ve read more of them than I thought.  By giving myself this assignment, i feel by years end (well...it won't be the calendar year) i’ll have good handle on what good short story writing is all about.  Or perhaps I’ll at least know what i don't know, which in a way is all i could ask for.

I have a good starting stack and i plan on reading through a few author’s collections.   I will most likely go through some multi-author compendiums as well.  While i plan on having full weeks reading only one author, i will try to mix it up some.  I assume my methods and execution for this project will change throughout the year.  

The only real rule i have is I want all 366 to be new stories for me, thus i will be skipping some well known stories in the genre.  What this will NOT be is an effort to read or find the best 366 short stories out there. I expect to find some clunkers along the way.  And that leads us to the grades.  I have come up with a method of grading each as I read them.  This is only a personal attempt to hone my critical eye.  It should not be seen as a way to rank or put judgment on the art for others.

OK...I hope some of you will read along or hop aboard this train.  I hope you all send along advice, recommendations and critiques as i go along. I assume that some points in the blog i will be unable to write long reviews, but I plan to at least keep a list here each day of what i’m up to.