2025 List Is Now....LIVE

If you want to skip ahead to just see the list, your loss, but, it's at the end ;)
Keep in mind the fact that my pen name is "The Illiterate" when I say that I am horrified that this year's "theme" is really going to make me feel like an idiot. Every year, right around October, someone in our little crew opens the door to start discussing "next year's theme", which, usually ends with some name calling, a week or so of silent pouting, and some drinking.
This year, the English Major was the one to crack the door wide open when he suggested we do a year of short stories. We got into the weeds almost immediately, apparently all settling on short stories being a forgone conclusion.
Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely protested a bit. I mentioned that it was my understanding that short stories tend to be short, but dense. That, again, my understanding (definitely not my experience because, well, I haven't read a whole lot of short stories), is that they tend to be "advanced", as in, not really for illiterates. The English Major insisted that my brain is "probably capable" of understanding "some short stories". Reluctantly I agreed as I knew that I had lost the debate when Homeschool chimed in (after days of silence) saying that short stories sounded like an awesome idea.....(idiot).
So, here we were, in October, solidifying around the idea of short stories, but, the details had to be ironed out. And, somehow, really don't ask me how, it's still very fuzzy, we landed on the following:
- Everyone would pick 24 short stories + 1 novel for a total of 72 short stories and 3 novels for the year
- 2 short stories per week for 9 months of the year
- 1 novel per month for the remaining 3 months
Punishment for failure: TBD
With 2024 being generally successful for me personally (as I mentioned before, I ended up finishing all of our novels first and in record speed), I'm confident 2025 will be something very different for me.
FULL LIST OF 2025 SHORT STORIES AND NOVELS
January
February: Adventurous Beginnings & Just a Bit of SciFi
- The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
- A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle
- A Way You'll Never Be by Ernest Hemingway
- The Snow of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
- Slowly, Slowly in the Wind by X
- The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
- Running Out of Dog by Dennis Lehane
- Exhalation by Ted Chiang
March: Can I Getta Little SciFi Please
- A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
- The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
- Sandkings [Thousand Worlds] by George R.R. Martin
- The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
- All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein
- Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr
- I am the Doorway by Stephen King
April: War & Peace (aka War & Humor)
- An Occurrance at Owl Street Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
- Blind by Mary Borden
- The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
- The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian
- Big Blonde by Dorothy Parker
- The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry
- You're Ugly Too by Lorrie Moore
- The Night the Ghost Got In by James Thurber
May
June: The Horror! + some Lit
- The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
- The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier
- Royal Jelly by Roald Dahl
- Pop Art by Joe Hill
- Waste Not by Alma Katsu
- Incident at Bear Creek Lodge by Tananarive Due
- The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue by Poe Ballantine
- The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
July: Fiction & Literature
- The Aleph
- The Lottery
- The Resemblance Between a Violin and a Coffin
- The Life You Save May Be Your Own
- Everything That Rises Must Converge
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
- The Best Girlfriend You Never Had
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
August: A Month of Dabbling (SciFi, Adventure, Literature)
- Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
- Snow by John Crowley
- To Build a Fire by Jack London
- The Sea Raiders by H.G. Wells
- The Dead by James Joyce
- Big Two Hearted River Parts 1 & 2 by Ernest Hemingway
- Gesturing by John Updike
- Emergency by Denis Johnson
September:
- TBD - Blame Homeschool . . . .
October: The Horror!
- The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates
- Skin by Roald Dahl
- The Monkey Paw by W.W. Jacobs
- Survivor Type by Stephen King
- There's Always Something in the Woods by Gabino Iglesias
November: Cyber-Punk Sandwhich with Horror and Random as the Bread
- Dance of the Dead by Richard Matheson
- Burning Chrome by William Gibson
- Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber
- The Scab's Progress by Bruce Sterling
- The Great Simoleon Caper by Neal Stephenson
- We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
- Lobsters by Charles Stross
- The Swimmer by John Cheever