Searching for the Best of Neopian Times

With this article I hope to accomplish a sense of reminisce of the past and to also help guide users to see the talents of the authors here on the Neopian Times. With that in mind, allow me to introduce a dilemma.

I was reading through the Neopian Times and wow are there some talented authors here in the land of Neopia. I was enthralled by how many adventures these authors have taken me on and how invested I was able to get in stories that seemed ridiculous, but in the good, humorous way. In my desire to continue finding great stories as the ones I have read, I went in search of another great story. Yet there are many stories spanning from the very first few issues, to number 775!! According to the Neopian Times Master index, there are 50,257 stories! This number does include each part of a series, but still, that is a massive number!

Stunned at the vastness of stories, I decided a search was needed to find stories that other people have enjoyed. I searched article after article, page after page and could not find a collection of people’s favorite stories nor any recommendations of stories that griped the reader and made for another exciting adventure. Surprised that I came up flat from my search, I decided to take matter into my own hands, or rather, your hands.

My current desire is to make a list of some of the top short stories and top continued stories so that those who never read a title from the list will be able to go back, find that piece, and enjoy some great literature. For others, they may be reminded of stories that they loved and can go back and re-read these stories and reminisce in old memories and bring some of the much-needed nostalgia.

In order to complete this wish, I have not the information I need nor can I find it. That is where you, the reader, come into the story. What I want will only be completed if you will help me.

How can you help? Send me Neomail with your recommendations of stories that you remember and loved! If they are your stories that you think should be known, send in the title too! If you send in a large list, great! There are several talented authors out there!

Once you send in your list, share this article with your friends or tell them to send me a Neomail with their favorite stories on it!

Jehtredmonkey

Neomail me!

I will compile all this information and put together a list that I hope to be one that can be easily located on the Neopian Times by all users so that they can start enjoying YOUR favorite pieces of literature.

My only hope is that I would have been able to make this list upon the publication of this article so that we could start reading sooner than later.

Just send me a list that reads, “Short Stories: 1) [insert title here] by [author’s username] 2) [insert title here] by [author’s username],” …etc. and, “Continued Series: 1) [insert title here] by [author’s username] 2) [insert title here] by [author’s username],” …etc. make sure that I can find these articles so that I can cite them accurately so that you will be able to find these stories.

If you cannot remember the title of the story, or the author’s username, try finding it. Use the search box to locate the story by keywords that you can remember. (Main character’s name, one word in the title, etc.) Note: When using the search box, it will only search by the first word entered. If you search “The Great Adventure” Results for the word “the” will appear. In this case, it is best to search for “Great” or “Adventure,” based on how many results are produced from each search.

If worse comes to worse and you are unable to find the story, Submit a short description of the story, and I will see if I can find this story. We can work together to locate these stories.

I feel that many stories are unknown and should be known and that is why I want to encourage everyone’s participation. Even if you go back and re-read the story you loved a few years ago, but upon the re-read you find that it wasn’t as good as you remember, still send it in! If you loved it then, maybe some new members or new readers will also love it!

Once I get enough responses, I will publish a follow-up article with a list of stories that everyone should read. Hopefully I will get this list within this next week so I can publish it sooner, but If not by the next issue, I will get the article by the one following after.

For the reader that is reading this and thinks I am too wordy:

I understand I have written a lot, but that is only to fulfill the minimum word count. It would have been easy to simply write, “Hey! I am looking for the best stories on the Neopian Times that you remember. Send them to me so I can make a list for you and future readers!” I wrote all of this to explain why and explore why this is important. There are just some stories that everyone should read, just as there are lists of books that everyone should read, I feel that there should be a list of stories from the Neopian Times that everyone should read as well.

Thank you for your time if you read to this point. I hope this gets you excited to hear some possibly new stories as it gets me excited! My wish is that you have a select few titles (or many titles) that are coming to mind that you want to share with everyone. This is going to be awesome

I hope you are enjoying your time in Neopia!

This has been jehtredmonkey,

Writing off!