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Worlds Without End Roll-Your-Own Reading Challenge

The Weirdness Reading Challenge

The Weirdness Reading Challenge

What is it with The Weird? I know that Lovecraft was weird, and before him there was Clark Ashton Smith and Arthur Machen. There was the magazine Weird Tales which sounds like it should have been weird. Jeff and Anne VanderMeer have published an 1100 page anthology of The Weird, and I've read their definition of it -- several times. But I'm still not sure I get it. And now to further complicate things, there is The New Weird.

So this year I am going to read as much weird ficition as I can find.

The Wikipedia entry on Weird Fiction lists over 50 weird writers, and there is the table of contents from the VanderMeer's book with right at 100. There is also the e-jounal Weird Fiction Review, where you can read interviews with current weird -- or I guess that should be "New Weird" practictioners and get leads to many new publications. Weirdness seems to find its natural home in short stories more so than novels, so if you sign up for a year of weirdness, expect to read a lot of collections and anthologies.

There is now a sub-genre heading for Weird in Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. I have begun to label titles. Be sure to add the subgenre label to whatever you read if it is not already there. And remember that any book or writer not currentlly in the WWEnd database can be added. Make your requests through the "Can't Find the Book You Want" forum.

Let The Weirdness begin.

Challenge Details
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
Challenge Span: January 2020 – December 2020

Reading Levels
Select your reading level below. You can adjust your level up or down at any time during the challenge.

 Resident of Arkham = 3 books + 1 reviews
 Student of Miskatonic = 6 books + 2 reviews
 Worshipper of Dagon = 9 books + 3 reviews
 High Priest of Cthulhu = 12 books + 6 reviews

This challenge has expired. Please have a look at some of our other challenges for something that may interest you.

charlesdee

charlesdee

The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories / The Listener and other stories
2
1
Engelbrecht

Engelbrecht

Dead Astronauts
Demiurge:  The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea
The Face of Twilight
The Fiction:  Complete and Unabridged
Head Games
Hearts of Oak
The Memory Police
Pym
The Twisted Ones
Weird Tales from Northern Seas:  Norwegian Legends
The Weird Tales of Tanith Lee
Windeye
finminer

finminer

The Cabin at the End of the World
A Clockwork Orange
Deadline
Finch
The Hunger
Mexican Gothic
Perdido Street Station
The Shadow Year
Stations of the Tide
FKatterjohn

FKatterjohn

The Dunwich Horror and Others
The October Country
Out of Space and Time
Hneite

Hneite

The Bees
Cat's Cradle
A Clockwork Orange
Countdown
The Deadly Percheron
Fractal Mode
Good Omens
The Lathe of Heaven
Mortal Engines
Rogue Moon
Ubik
A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking
lymphdj

lymphdj

The Crystal World
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
A Scanner Darkly
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Ubik
1
MaggieK

MaggieK

Borne
Deathbird Stories:  A Pantheon of Modern Gods
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
The Invisible Library
The Wine-Dark Sea
1
Momosnyx

Momosnyx

3
2
1
niriop

niriop

Counter-Clock World
The M.D.:  A Horror Story
Naked Lunch
A Nest of Nightmares
Strata
The Time of the Eye
The Trial
5
4
3
2
1
Parzival1977

Parzival1977

6
5
4
3
2
1
PJohnGregson

PJohnGregson

The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Turn of the Screw
Vathek
A Voyage to Arcturus
Wieland, or, The Transformation
Rhondak101

Rhondak101

Datura
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach
Kraken
thereddeath

thereddeath

Annihilation
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
1
Weesam

Weesam

Borne
The Cloven
Dead Astronauts
The Erstwhile
House on Fire
Hunters and Collectors
The Megarothke
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Theatre of the Gods
The Troika
The Unsettled Dust
The Vorrh