365 Short Story Read: Day 1-8
A story a day keeps the boredom at bay!
This year I set out to read a short story a day - a 365 project. I’m allowing myself a day off if I’m too busy, as long as I make up for it another day with two stories. The goal is to read 365 stories and report on them in 2025. The genres will vary from fantasy, science fiction and horror, to literary, magic realism, and anything else I stumble across. Some writers will likely feature multiple times if they’re a particular favourite or I have a lot of their stories (hello Tanith Lee!).
1/365 Story Reading Challenge
THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS by Lord Dunsany.
A humorous and very short fantasy story by the author of The King of Elfland’s Daughter. The Gibbelins hoard enormous wealth in their castle for no other reason than to tempt humans to come and steal it. It also has one of my favourite last lines. Sample text:
‘Alderic, Knight of the Order of the City and the Assault, hereditary Guardian of the King's Peace of Mind, a man not unremembered among makers of myth, pondered so long upon the Gibbelins' hoard that by now he deemed it his. Alas that I should say of so perilous a venture, undertaken at dead of night by a valorous man, that its motive was sheer avarice! Yet upon avarice only the Gibbelins relied to keep their larders full, and once in every hundred years sent spies into the cities of men to see how avarice did, and always the spies returned again to the tower saying that all was well.’
2/365 Story Reading Challenge
THE CENSORS by Luisa Valenzuela
A short story of less than four pages by Argentine writer Valenzuela. It's set during a dictatorship, where every bit of correspondence by the citizens is scrutinized by the authorities. Main character Juan has sent a letter to a woman now living in Paris and he's panicked at what the censors might read into it. He’s so desperate to intercept the letter that he applies to join the censorship office. There he moves from one division to the next, passing up the ranks. Turns out he's very good at his job. The letter to his friend has not yet landed in his basket. But eventually it does. I love the swift and sudden conclusion. Sample text:
‘Soon his work became so absorbing that his noble mission blurred in his mind. Day after day he crossed out whole paragraphs in red ink, pitilessly chucking many letters into the censored basket. These were horrible days when he was shocked by the subtle and conniving ways employed by people to pass on subversive messages; his instincts were so sharp that he found behind a simple ‘the weather’s unsettled’ or ‘prices continue to soar’ the wavering hand of someone secretly scheming to overthrow the Government.’
3/365 Story Reading Challenge
BLOW-UP by Julio Cortazar
Originally called ‘Las babas del diablo’ or ‘The Droolings of the Devil', the story’s title was changed to fit Antonioni’s film. There are differences between film and story. I'm only dealing with the story here.
Cortazar’s narrative is not simply told. In the beginning he plays with tense and he also switches between first person and third. The narrator claims he is dead at an early point, then goes on to say not really. Yet he interrupts the narrative at times with observations about clouds and birds passing by.
The narrator is a South American living in Paris. He's a translator who also pursues photography. The narrative deals with watching/looking/observing/recording events. The main event is recorded first in a photograph and also in the narrator’s account.
The narrator goes for a walk along the Seine. When he reaches a park, he sees what he initially believes is a couple. But it becomes clear that it's a woman and a teenage boy. And the boy’s body language suggests he wants to flee as the woman gets too friendly. The narrator notices a man sitting in a car, with a newspaper. When the narrator decides to photograph the woman and boy, the former notices and demands he hand over the film. Meanwhile the boy takes the chance to flee and the man has exited the car.
Later, the narrator develops the photograph and blows it up. It seems to come alive, playing out a more disturbing scenario than the one he witnessed.
Sample text:
‘It’ll never be known how this has to be told, in the first person plural or continually inventing modes that will serve for nothing. If one might say: I will see the moon rose, or: we hurt at the back of my eyes, and especially: you the blond woman was the clouds that race before my your his our yours their faces. What the hell.’
4/365 Story Reading Challenge
THE SWIMMER by John Cheever
A classic American short story showing a wealthy suburbanite’s fall from their place in the American Dream. The story was made into a film with Burt Lancaster in the lead role. The story opens with Ned at a summer pool party with friends and his wife, Lucinda. It's established from the very beginning that they've had too much to drink the previous night. Ned has the wild idea of swimming home across the neighborhood of pools. He comes to call the chain of pools the Lucinda River.
Over the course of the story there are hints that all is not well for Ned, even if he doesn't know it himself. The weather turns autumnal, there's a rain storm along the way. A neighbour’s house has been sold, but Ned doesn't remember this happening. Other neighbours are surprised to see him. And it becomes clear it's not just because he's swimming across the county.
One neighbour mentions his house being sold and some issue with his ‘poor children’. He doesn't know what she means. Ned is a snob, often rejecting invitations from the wrong sort of people. When he turns up in the garden of one of these families, he’s publicly snubbed, though he doesn't believe it possible for someone lower down socially to successfully snub him. He uses their pool and moves on.
He suffers more indignities along the way.
The swim across the county lasts from midsummer weather to colder temperatures. When he reaches home, he is finally confronted with the truth.
This is a beautifully written story where weather, locations, and neighbours’ behaviour all build up a picture of Ned’s fall from grace.
Sample text:
‘He seemed to see, with a cartographer’s eye, that string of swimming pools, that quasi-subterranean stream that stretched across the county. He had made a discovery, a contribution to modern geography; he would name the stream Lucinda after his wife.’
5/365 Story Reading Challenge
DON'T LOOK NOW by Daphne du Maurier
This long short story, set in Venice, follows bereaved parents John and Laura, after the death of their daughter Christine. Leaving their son behind at boarding school in England, they're holidaying and the story's title is also the first line. John says there are a couple of old women nearby (in their restaurant) who are trying to hypnotise him. When Laura follows one of the women to the loos, she returns to say that the woman's blind sister is psychic and could see Christine sitting between them. This angers John who thinks the two women are frauds. Laura however is cheered up.
Later they see the women in a restaurant and Laura speaks to them again. She returns to say that Christine wants them to leave Venice as soon as possible. John in particular is in danger. The sisters also claim he has some psychic powers himself. He doesn't believe any of this. But back at the hotel there's a message from home saying their son is ill.
Laura arranges to fly to England, with John following behind. But after her flight has left, he sees her in a boat with the sisters. So begins a search for her, and he's still concerned the sisters are up to no good. When he goes to the police, he hears there's a murderer on the loose.
The climax of the story is very similar to the film adaptation. Except that in the film Laura returns to Venice. John finally realizes the nature of the vision he had of her with the sisters. While the film exploited the eeriness of Venice in the off season, the short story does not. I enjoyed the short story, but I think I prefer the film version more, with its visuals, extra story, character layers, haunting soundtrack, and use of colour.
Sample text:
‘The twins were standing there, the blind one still holding on to her sister's arm, her sightless eyes fixed firmly upon him. He felt himself held, unable to move, and an impending sense of doom, of tragedy, came upon him.’
6/365 Story Reading Challenge
THREE GIRLS by Joyce Carol Oates
This short story made a big impression on me when I first read it. I felt at the time that there was almost a moment of transcendence at one point. It's a story for anyone who likes books and used bookshops. The year is 1959 and two ‘girl-poets’ including the narrator are browsing in Strand Used Books in NYC. The two girls are revealed to be 19 and 20. The narrator is looking back, with a wry view of their youthful views and pretensions.
Into this scene comes a third girl. The narrator’s friend has noticed this blonde girl browsing. The girl wears a fedora, pulled low over her face, a coat, and a pair of cowboy boots. Her blonde hair is in a six inch plait. It takes a moment for the narrator to realize it's Marilyn Monroe. No one else has noticed, but the two girls creep closer, nosy about her books. Monroe is shown to be a serious reader, taking ages to choose her selection. The girls become anxious that someone else will recognize her. They're also struck by the way Marilyn seems to think she's just like them. Yet they know she's not. They also know that the girl in front of them and the Hollywood sexpot are not the same.
The story reminded me of all the many hours I’ve spent in used bookshops. Of course no one notices Monroe. Everyone else is too busy browsing.
Sample text:
‘And that was the sadness in it, Marilyn Monroe’s wish. To be like us. For it was impossible, of course. For anyone could have told Marilyn Monroe, even two girl-poets, that it was too late for her in history. Already, at age thirty… Marilyn Monroe had entered history, and there was no escape from it. Her films, her photos. Her face, her figure, her name. To enter history is to be abducted spiritually, with no way back. As if lightning were to strike the building that housed the Strand, as if an actual current of electricity were to touch and transform only one individual in the great cavernous space…’
7/365 Story Reading Challenge
LA REINE BLANCHE by Tanith Lee
Fantasy story by prolific author Lee. A young woman marries a king who is over a hundred years old. She was warned not to marry him, but she didn't listen. In this kingdom, royal widows are always locked away in towers, never to see another soul for the rest of their lives.
The old king dies before the marriage is consummated. He trips over her slippers. Later, dressed in white and carrying a rose, she is taken to a tower. After a year, she's visited by a black raven who asks for shelter from the cold winter. She gives the bird food and drink. It tells her of the kingdom and the young king in search of a particular bride seen in a painting. The raven tells her she is the woman in the painting.
Soon she finds herself transported from the tower and she meets the young king. They spend a night together before she returns. However, there's a twist to this story. If you want to know what it is, you’ll have to seek it out. I read the story in ‘The Gorgon' collection of Lee stories. It may appear elsewhere.
Sample text:
‘The white queen lived in a pale tower, high in a shadowy garden. She had been shut in there three days after the death of her husband, the king. Such a fate was traditional for certain of the royal widows. All about, between the dark verdures of the dark garden, there stared up similar pale towers in which similar white queens had for centuries been immured. Most of the prisoners were by now deceased. Occasionally, travellers on the road beneath claimed to have glimpsed or to have thought that they glimpsed - a dim skeletal shape or two, in senile disarray, peering blindly from the tall narrow windows, which were all the windows these towers possessed, over the heads of the trees, towards the distant spires of the city.’
8/365 Story Reading Challenge
HOW THE WORLD WAS SAVED by Stanislaw Lem
This story from Polish author Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) is around five pages long. It falls into the tradition of ‘beware what you ask for’.
A machine is constructed that can create anything starting with n. The constructor then asks it to produce various items like needles and nankeens, and anything else he can think of. Finally he asks the machine to produce natrium. ‘Never heard of it,’ says the machine. It's actually sodium which the machine points out starts with an s. Natrium is the Latin name.
‘Look, old boy,’ said the machine, ‘if I could do everything starting with n in every possible language, I’d be a Machine That Could Do Everything in the Whole Alphabet, since any item you care to mention undoubtedly starts with an n in one foreign language or another.’
When the constructor invites a friend over, they give the machine more challenges. Night. Nature. And the machine whirrs into action. Finally the friend, not yet impressed, comes up with negative. After that, nothing. The whole thing of course leads to disaster…
You will find this story in The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem, published by Penguin. Lem was also the author of Solaris. The NYT described him as a ‘Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age’.
Artwork is The Blue Silk Dress by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In other news, my poem After The Ice Age got shortlisted in the first Top in Fiction award list for 2025. So pleased about that.
I'm currently busy with a developmental edit, plus I need to go over my own story Gobelin Market which I’ve started serializing here.
If you're a fiction writer looking for feedback on plot, character, structure, etc, I’m open to new clients. SF/H/F, historical, literary and thrillers. Adult fiction. My website is https://indiecateditorial.com/.