What are your favorite short stories?

Discussion in 'The Bookshelf' started by ghostonvacation, Aug 21, 2013.

  1. Tell me so I can read them? Author and title helpful, also interested in larger collections of short stories with title/editor if possible.
     
  2. Stephen King - Night Shift
    Stephen King - Skeleton Crew
    Hunter S. Thompson - Screwjack
     
  3. Kurt Vonnegut has several books that are just collections of short stories.
    Armageddon in Retrospect, and Welcome to the Monkey House are both fantastic.
     
  4. HP Lovecraft has some amazing short stories, they're also public domain so you can even get them free off the internet
     
  5. #5 sky dog, Aug 22, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 22, 2013
    I'll second the Lovecraft recommendation
     
    My favorite short stories include "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
    by Ambrose Bierce, "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury, and "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry. 
     
    But seriously, check out Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, The Arabian Nights, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, and Edgar Allan Poe. You can knock out three stories from these books and authors in a sitting, and they're all worth reading.
     
  6. well done blades I will be checking these out in the coming days. I just started reading Cathedral by raymond carver (the collection not just story by same title) and it has renewed my interest in the short story. Some of the authors you guys mentioned look familiar but a few I will be looking at for the first time. 
     
  7. anything by chuck palahniuk
     
  8. The itsy bitsy spider. Shit always gets intense when he gets washed off the web
     
  9. #9 White Indian, Aug 22, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 22, 2013
     
    Carver's great. And if you like him, you should check out Flannery O'Conner's short stories. Most of her stuff has strong Christian overtones, but you don't have to be a Christian to enjoy them; she writes in a very tight and concise style; no flowery lyrical tricks. She was one of Carver's favorite writers. Also, you might want to read John Fante (the real Godfather of Dirty Realism, a title often given to Bukowski). His novel, Ask the Dust, is definitely his best work, but his short stories (collected under the book, The Wine of Youth) are great too.
     
    William Saroyan is a good read as well--one of my favorites. And then there's John Cheever, who I never cared much for, but he was a friend of Carver's and they shared similar themes. All over his short stories are collected under one massive volume. And Sherwood Anderson, too.
     
  10. #10 sherman, Aug 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 23, 2013
    Voltaire's Candide and Yann Martel's The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios are two I recently read. I recommend them both (Martel is the author of Life of Pi, the book that became a movie).
     
  11. #11 TheAnswer121, Aug 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 23, 2013
    The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy
     
    read them in high school but they still stay with me like, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Hamlet, Beowolf. I used to love great literature, guess I lost interest. maybe i'll try to read more
     
  12. Ah yes, Tolstoy is great. God Sees The Truth But Waits is my favorite Tolstoy short story, like a Russian version of Shawshank Redemption. And this reminds me that Dostoyevsky also has a LOT of great short stories, such as Notes From UndergroundThe DoubleThe Dream of a Ridiculous Man, White Nights, and The Meek One. All in the public domain too.
     
    The 19th century was truly Russia's literary golden age.
     
  13. Shirley Jackson is amazing, I'd add Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle
     
  14.  
    I picked up a Franklin Library edition of Candide just a few weeks ago
     
    I may try to read that next to clear my palette before I start another longer novel
     
  15. My favorite short stories are in
    the two Stephen King Anthologies -
    Night Shift and
    Skeleton Crew.
     
    Cain Rose Up is fairly disturbing.
    Strawberry Spring is also good.
    The Jaunt is very engaging.
     
    Those two collections are great short
    story fodder, as already mentioned
    somewhere above.
     
  16. siddartha by herman hesse.  easy read but profound.  the old man and the sea.  more profound and easy to read.
     
  17. More like a short novel but Animal Farm by George Orwell, my favorite book ever
     
  18. Young Goodman Brown and The Ministers Black Veil both by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
     
  19. Who Goes There by John Campbell

    The original story about The Thing 👍


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  20. I will be picking up a couple collections of short stories for Christmas holidays, thanks for the suggestions!
     

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