YEARS OF BASS

Done – Finally!

15 months...or close to it. That’s how long it took me to get through this single volume.

Reading and posting. How am do I expect myself to get through 30 more years (volumes)?

Time for some math.

Let’s say that there is an average of 17 stories per volume.

17 times 30 equal 510.

510 more stories...today.

Now, let’s say it took me 450 days (15 months) to read one volume.

That is an average of one story every 26.4 days.

So, if we apply my reading habits to future readings, that means it will take me 13,464 days or 36 years to finish just the volumes up to 2009.

Now, if we add 36 years to 2009 (to determine the year that I would finish) that would be 2045.

That means I would be 73 years old when I finish the series up to 2009.

Now, this does not include the years that will arrive while I am reading.

Those would be the years 2010 – 2045.

Another 35 volumes.

Another 595 stories...another 15,708 days or 43 years just to get me to 2045...when I am 73.

I suppose I had better get my ass in gear and read more than one story every 26.4 days. It’s going to be a marathon. I’m up for it. Reading forever!

Weird coincidence I noticed.

I was in my 36^th year of life as I read the BASS for 1978. The same number of years it would take me to finish all the volumes up to 2009. –Huh-

That kinda freaks me out.

I think it means something.

Overall impressions of Best American Short Stories 1978.

I entered into this first volume with such excitement. I saw unknown authors and a couple that were familiar. I was ready to tackle this volume and blast through it while making updates to this journal.

My expectations were shot down early. They began with my problems with Solotaroff. The degree of the problem is evident in the number of times I mentioned his name...and not in praise. Through the whole reading, I just couldn’t get away from him. He left too much of an imprint on the volume rather than the authors contained. It’s their volume not his. Did he ruin it for me?

No.

The experience is what I treasured. What the stories allowed me to discover and think about. So, in a way, they accomplished their objective. They gave me something. Maybe not what they intended...but something.

Time to put 1978 to bed. He will line up to the rest of the volumes and be pulled from time to time as reference. It was a tough 15 months.

I can only hope and work hard to get through 1979.

Please Joyce Carol Oates...give me something to fly through...I trust your judgment!