Reading challenges are fun, and they are so addictive. However, this year I did not do as well as compared to last year, simply because I have lost interest of the books that I had listed long ago, or my reading mood got in the way. I think the latter is the main issue for the incompletion of these challenges. Anyway, this will not stop me from participating in more challenges next year. After all, reading is about pleasure, isn't it?

1) Blue Justice by Illona Hans
2) Cat O'Nine Tales: And Other Stories by Jeffrey Archer
3) Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie
4) Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
5) Into The Storm by Suzanne Brockmann
6) The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman

I have to admire Neil Gaiman's versatility not only because he is a great storyteller but the stories he writes are always so different from one another and best of all is, he is able to weave them all with style. After reading Coraline and Neverwhere and liking them, I decided to look out for his books but since I have not read any of his short stories, I figure Fragile Things will be a great start.

I like the way he described the title under the introduction:

So beautifully written in my opinion, and so meaningful.

Fragile Things not only consisted of various short stories, but a few poetry as well. His short stories featured various genres like dark fantasy, horror, sci-fi etc which I think is refreshing as I get to read different genres in this collection. There are twenty-seven stories in this book; and although I won't write my thoughts on each story, I will however write a few which are my favourites.

In A Study in Emerald, we see Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is caught in a mystery with detective Henry Camberley in the late 19th century, in a little H.P. Lovecraft horror style. This short story won the Hugo Award in August 2004 as Best Short Story. In October in the Chair, I liked how the story unfolds when each month has his or her own little story to tell; how light or how dark it is depending on the season where they belongs. This won the 2003 Locus Award for Best Short Story.

In The Flints of Memory Lane, the narrator believed some places to be haunted and avoided them as a child. He had none horror story to share, until he was fifteen and he met a woman dressed like a gypsy queen standing beneath a street-lamp, staring up at a house and how this lingered in his mind and became his personal ghost story. In Locks, it is believed that everyone owe it to each other to tell stories, not as father and daughter but as people simply. In this story, 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' is shared and analysed in poetry-like style.

Feeders and Eaters is a creepy one. The narrator met Eddie, an old friend at an old cafe and wondered what had happened to his once good-looking friend when Eddie told him his encounter with an old woman and her strange looking cat. Goliath is a good sci-fi story, one which is thought provoking and sucks me in from the start although I am not a big fan of this genre. And Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky led me to think how one will pursue something endlessly and cluelessly, like a vicious cycle, over and over again.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is another good one which I think will appeal to many teenaged boys as it tells about two boys from an all-boys school and how they stumble into a party full of pretty girls but the fantasy ends there after they had found out what they are. And finally, there is The Monarch of the Glen, a novella of another Neil Gaiman's bestselling novel American Gods. I have yet to read this novel but I know I will get to it soon since I have listed this for one of the reading challenges.

Fragile Things is a fine collection of short stories and wonders. I am definitely looking forward to more in Smoke and Mirrors.

Just when I told myself I have had signed up enough reading challenges for Year 2008, this reading challenge comes along and I have to participate in this because I love the button so much. On top of that, the following books have been sitting in my TBR pile for some time and I need an extra push so this challenge arrives perfectly on time.

For this reading challenge, I have chosen Option 5.

As quoted from the post of the host, Kate's Book Blog: (Option 5: This is the custom option under the rubric of which you can tailor your reading list to best meet your personal reading aspirations. You might wish to craft a list that focuses on a particular place, or era, or genre. Or you might wish to include reading about short stories as well as of short stories, for example, such works as Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story. It’s entirely up to you.)

I chose the following for its paranormal/fantasy theme: