Depends. Was your goal to simply read and enjoy short stories which you lost the habit of reading or was the goal to tick off a certain number because you've gotten so behind on your reading of them?

Eventually, some calamity or just plain illness will interfere with your daily goal. Will you feel BEHIND if you miss out on a week of reading because you got the flu? If so, then, count the stories. If not, don't worry about it. Perhaps keep a spreadsheet of them. I keep a list and a goal number just because I have a lot of individual purchased and free novellas and short stories in both audiobook and Kindle. Some of these are back from 2008. I usually listen to them in the morning, but then life happens and I get out of the habit and my list reminds me that I still have these waiting for me. Once I get caught up, I will return to my podcasts (Classic Tales, Scipodcast, OldTimeRadio) which was my previous morning fare.

Finished yet another Terry Pratchett audiobook (Reaper Man). I have the next one, but it looks like I have 5 starts already going on and need to finish at least one of those before starting another. I have one non-fiction book "Life at Bletchley Park" that is very interesting, but I always have to push myself to read more of it. I guess this is why I seldom read non-fiction any more. Today though, since the Echo has a very good speaker, I'm going to set it to Text-to-speech (british voice of course) and listen to it while I work on a time-consuming project.

My challenge has just got a bit tricker with the LightSpeed Magazine kickstarter. Luckily I have been frugal this month, and the kickstarter payment comes in February, so I can still stay in budget.

But it's clearly going to be harder to stick to my £25/month budget than I'd hoped. (Since the Kickstarter is around £24 all on its own - about £12 carried over from January and the remaining £12 from February.)

Finally finished my third book of the year, Emma by Jane Austen. I'm currently two books behind on my challenge. Not sure what's dragged me down. I'm still halfway through the second book in the Gormenghast trilogy and don't see me finishing it by the end of the month. I don't know what's taking me so long with it - partly, because it's a physical book that contains all three of the books, so I can't take it anywhere. But although I'm absolutely loving it, I just don't seem to be getting through it at all. So I'm going to read some other things for a bit, and come back to it. Hopefully I can catch up with my challenge by the end of January.

Fortunately, my limitations I've put on myself for buying books have worked better! I've only spent 30% of my monthly ebook budget so far, and I've only bought one physical book, which I'm going to read now - the Austen Project update of Emma written by Alexander McCall Smith.

I've been in a manga mood lately.
Its not very helpful for either of my book club challenges, nor my genre/category challenge, but its great for my series challenge as I'm now 3 books into a 10 book series called Kitchen Princess. I own the entire collection thanks to my daughter being interested in it first.

@Nyssa: I have a weakness for Mangas! Which ones are your favorites? When I was in highschool I used to buy volume per volume until I had to give them up for my nieces (younger generation); but when I was in college, I've met a lot of young professionals who still have their manga collections intact. :2thumbsup

(Sadly Mangas aren't a part of my challenge. But I can always add them up. Hahaha)
I haven't even started on the crime/fantasy books I've challenge myself on. Apparently The Martian doesn't count as a sci-fi book as it's science fiction only... sad face.

I'm pretty new to the category, so I haven't found a favorite as yet.

I really enjoyed the first omnibus Volume of Chobits. I plan to reread it at some point this year and then finally read the 2nd omnibus, which has been sitting on shelf forever.
I did not enjoy Clover at all; its ending prematurely didn't help either.
I'm liking Kitchen Princess so far... its a very sweet (no pun intended).

I'm guessing you meant that it doesn't count as Fantasy, because sci-fi is short for Science Fiction. :)
Challenges are supposed to be fun, so if you want to add manga, go ahead, unless you think adding it will interfere with the rest of your challenges.
Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy all of your reads this year!

I should pick that up again. Listened about 1/3 of the way through, but too many interruptions at the time. That was fall of 2013. :) I have a slew of Classics audiobooks that I got for free or 99c due to whispersync.

One month in (almost) and it looks like I'll finish it with a dozen books in the complete pile and two on the go. I might get a thirteenth in, but probably not. One of my biggest months for pages read at almost 3,600 pages. I don't think I've ever hit 4,000 pages in a month.

My sub challenges are coming along nicely:

TBR: 3/5
Second Chance: 3/5
Canada: 1/6
Book Club: 1/8
World: 0/6

Purchases: $0

Congratulations, HIMS, especially on the $0 purchased!

I am well in budget for the month so far, and look like staying in budget next month despite a large spend on LightSpeed Magazine's kickstarter.

But reducing my TBR pile this year is looking less certain - the kickstarter alone will add 50+ books (the Fantasy Magazine back catalogue) to my TBR pile.

I think I am going to hit 4000 pages, myself, which is a pretty remarkable total, for me. OK, I finished a 450-page book on the 1st, and I probably only read about 150 pages of the 400-page Shadows Beneath anthology (the rest was transcripts of podcasts I listened to, and earlier drafts of the stories, which I skimmed), but it's still very good going. The extra short story a day has basically given me four additional books already, which is coincidentally how far ahead of my TBR I am.

Well, 12 books so far this month, so slightly ahead of my 120 book target, and close to my 150 book target. Looking good, considering I've been busier than a [fill in your favourite expression here].

I want to at least finish 4 books.. just finished one, and about to start reading another. There's also a few manga's I want to get into like the Akira series.. finished the first book last year, but it's a pain to find the rest of the series.

Reading my 11th book of the year, which I should be able to finish today or tomorrow. I've been on a short book binge this month so I managed to read 3301 pages when I finish my current book.

I'm trying to finish Perdido Street Station. It varies as to how interesting it is. I do feel it's a bit longer than it needs to be.

Don't ever read Moby Dick, in the days the book was written authors were paid based on the number of pages they wrote so there was an incentive to ramble and he book really rambles a lot.

I just realised I missed my first day on my daily short story challenge yesterday. I'm quite annoyed at myself about that. I had plenty of free time, but just clean forgot.

I'm still on target - I was allowing for a few slip-ups and unusually busy days - but it's still annoying to break the chain after 30 days.

I finally took a break from the manga! I'm currently reading The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. It is quite interesting and humorous!

It's a great story buried in a book on whaling terminology.

Not my favourite read.

We're now well past January and into February. I'm doing well on my main challenge of keeping to a book buying budget. I think I'm a little behind on my reading of the books I bought in 2004 and 2005 but haven't yet read, but I'm sure I can catch up.

A most enjoyable start to my reading year.

I finished my second Canadian book and have started my third Canadian book. Looking good to make a serious dent in that subchallenge this month.

As of January 31st:
 

Flights of Fantasy Book Club Reads :
Primary - One Book Club Selection from Each Month: [00 / 11]
Secondary - Additional Book Club Selections from Each Month: [00 out of 33]
Bonus - Unread Book Club Selections from 2014: [01 out of 44]

Flights of Fantasy Series Challenge Reads[ :
Primary - One Series Book Every Month: [01 / 12]
Secondary - Additional Series Books Every Month: [07]
Bonus - Complete a Minimum of 3 Series by the End of the Year: [01 / 03]

The "I'll Try Anything Once" Challenge :
Primary - One "Anything Once" Book Every Month: [01 / 12]
Secondary - Additional "Anything Once" Books Every Month: [02]
Bonus - Complete the "Anything Once" list by the End of the Year: [03 / 52]

MobileRead Book Club Selections :
Primary - One Book Club Selection from Each Quarter: [00 / 04]
Secondary - Additional Book Club Selections from Each Quarter: [00]
Bonus - All Book Club Selections for the Year: [00 / 12]
Add'l Bonus - Any Previous Unread Book Club Selections (2008 -2014): [00 / 78]

Finished my third Canadian book and am halfway through my fourth. Definitely making some progress this month.

I am on track, despite my ENGL 44B class. Ooh, my first essay is up this weekend. Let's see how painful it will be-- every instructor is different, you know, and this one is a PhD, which might mean I spend the whole weekend trying to craft a B essay when I am not actually working.

I have no idea about a thesis yet. :/

Now that January is over ...

I completed 14 books in January, 3 short of the average of 17 which I need to read each month to meet my goal of 200 books. But I know that the number of books I read each month varies by quite a lot. In 2014, they varied from 7 to 17. The characteristics of the books I'm reading contribute and there's always work and life which can affect the amount of time available for reading.

My secondary goal is to read at least 50,000 pages. That's a monthly objective of 4166 pages, and I exceeded that in January with 4391 pages.

Regarding the other challenges I have decided to attempt, I have made no progress toward completing any of the designated series. I'm working on the Brother Cadfael series and about 60% of the way through The Leper of Saint Giles.

I've completed 15 books so far this year, and managed to record all of them. But I'm really struggling to keep the total spent, including Audible Credits, up to date and accurate. It's just way too easy to lose track. A real struggle. I think I've got it accurate, but I might well have missed one or two. But at least nothing major.

So far I've spent $45, and used 7 Audible credits. Which, considering my usual spending on books, makes it a good month. That number of Audible credits is high, obviously, but I used up several extra credits that I'd carried over from last year, plus three credits I got as freebies for joining KU. I'll be killing that account shortly.

I'm still reading my 7th book of the year. Its taking me way too long to complete, but that technically can't be helped. At least I'm enjoying the ride, even if I feel like I'm stuck in traffic.

The more frustrating situation, however, is my internal struggle over which of 3 options I should read next.

What are the options?

Continuing the Kitchen Princess series, rereading Volume 1 and then finishing the Omnibus Versions of the Chobits series , or Age of Innocence.

I feel like I'm forgetting a 4th one, but I'm not sure what it is at the moment.

^Fugitive Pieces. :)

Too depressing. I rarely read or watch anything that has to do with Slavery or the Holocaust; I find the subject matter emotionally draining and I end up feeling sad and miserable - sometimes for days after.

I can appreciate that. Some times I like draining; sometimes not.

I also never read anything with that subject matter, but NOT because it's too emotional. My reaction to that is that I am reluctant to get immersed in the story and I dread the book will be sad and grim(like you) BUT UNLIKE you I also feel that a book like The Book thief(a book that I had to abandon) is using the time period to easily and basely manipulate my emotions (which is of course what any book will try to achieve ) but I feel the holocaust thing is too obvious a setting and I feel I'm being taxed and subjugated...if that makes sense at all. I don't want to be aware that I'm being manipulated.

I understand what you're saying.

The subjects are just too real and close to home for me.

My great, great, great grandmother (There may be one more "great" in there - I'm not sure) was a 12 year girl, when she was forced (like all the others with her) off of a slave ship, right off of the coast of the Bahamas. The captain was trying to avoid being caught, as slavery had just been abolished.
Thankfully, she survived the swim, which is how my mother's family and I came to be Bahamian. Her name was Georgette.

Yes, I can understand. My own ancestors came from India to work as indentured laborers in Mauritius. The working conditions were not good. There were (and are) people of African origins on the same island who had been slaves. So I can empathize.

Nearly halfway into February and I'm falling off pace on several fronts. I've had little reading time in the past couple of weeks. The situation isn't dire yet, but I need to do some serious mustering of my wits. Well, that's why it's a challenge and not a walk in the park.

Hmmm...reading in the park? Although the weather might not be the best yet. I did manage to do some outdoor reading on Saturday though. In a chair on the freshly shoveled patio. The sun is actually starting to feel warm now and it was nice for a half hour. I should have taken a picture. I think it's the earliest outdoor reading I've ever done. It felt decadent.

Reading in the park? I've read (and slept and lived) outdoors in Death Valley National Park this entire month. Still behind, but that's because the last books read have been especially long. Also behind because I'd forgotten how incredible is the night sky. Our world is so well lit that it is easy to forget we can go where it is dark and be staggered by the immense beauty in just looking up.

^Agreed. There are groups trying to bring back the night sky. I think it's a worthy cause. I need to take my son camping this year to show him what the sky really looks like.

I hear you. Where I like, the night sky offers no clue that we're living on the edge of a spiral galaxy. I'd like to take an ocean cruise sometime just to see the Milky Way.