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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 2023 – December 2023

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

12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Engelbrecht

Engelbrecht

The Ballad of Perilous Graves
The Dark Country
The Devil Takes You Home
The Employees
H. P. Lovecraft:  Against the World, Against Life
A House With Good Bones
John Dies at the End
Motherthing
Our Wives Under the Sea
The Silverberg Business
A Touch of Jen
The Weird and the Eerie
finminer

finminer

Gideon the Ninth
Silver Nitrate
The Turn of the Screw
The Vampire Tapestry
The World We Make
1
Fortuo

Fortuo

3
2
1
Hneite

Hneite

Grail
Harrow the Ninth
Hothouse / The Long Afternoon of Earth
The Land of Oz
Lapvona
Light From Uncommon Stars
The Memory Police
Necronomicon:  The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
Or What You Will
Perelandra
Temporary
When Women Were Dragons
niriop

niriop

The Doll Who Ate His Mother
The Fungus
Invisible Cities
The Spear
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
PylesofBooks

PylesofBooks

A Cosmology of Monsters
The Employees
Errata
Helpmeet
Nona the Ninth
This World Is Full of Monsters
ScoLgo

ScoLgo

After Many a Summer
Agents of Dreamland
The Ballad of Black Tom
Black Helicopters
The City We Became
The Jennifer Morgue
The Red Tree
The Tindalos Asset
Winter Tide
Scott Laz

Scott Laz

The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
The Divinity Student
The Door to Saturn
The End of the Story
The Golem
Immobility
The Silverberg Business
A Vintage from Atlantis
Wylding Hall
thereddeath

thereddeath

Against the Day
The Annual Migration of Clouds
Borne
Comfort Me With Apples
A Dead Djinn in Cairo
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Vol. 2
Grimms' Fairy Tales
The Haunting of Tram Car 015
Heaven Official's Blessing, Vol. 2
The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Vol. 2
The Jungle Book
We Are All Completely Fine
wecowo

wecowo

Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood
Secret Rendezvous
The Trial
The Woman in the Dunes
2
1