Your favourite/best Short Stories?

G

gibbo

I enjoy short stories a lot. As Twitter is Facebook for people with ADD so are short stories for people who enjoy reading. Short stories also offer abrupt and/or twist endings that force the imagination to wander and conclude the story based on your general perception of life.

Anyhoo, that said, what are you guyses favourite short stories?
 
I love the idea of being able to start and finish a story in one session!

I’m a huge Stephen King fan, so I’ve read most of his shorts. The collection ‘Night Shift’ is absolutely excellent, almost every story in there being worth a read. Favourites in there are probably ‘The Ledge’ and ‘The Man Who Loved Flowers’.
 
John Marsden has a few books that are novels, but they are very short. Easily read in an afternoon. 'Dear Miffy' and 'Checkers' are two examples, and also happen to be two of my absolute favourite books of all time.

Short stories are awesome, when well written :D
 
mad_hatter said:
I love the idea of being able to start and finish a story in one session!

I’m a huge Stephen King fan, so I’ve read most of his shorts. The collection ‘Night Shift’ is absolutely excellent, almost every story in there being worth a read. Favourites in there are probably ‘The Ledge’ and ‘The Man Who Loved Flowers’.
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ha! I'm actually half way through Night Shift now! Halfway through "sometimes they come back" I quite enjoyed Trucks and battleground (humorous ending)

Got different seasons lined up to go next.

insert_cliche_here said:
John Marsden has a few books that are novels, but they are very short. Easily read in an afternoon. 'Dear Miffy' and 'Checkers' are two examples, and also happen to be two of my absolute favourite books of all time.

Short stories are awesome, when well written :D
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Hmm... I'll check out Marsden, thanks
 
I'm not a great fan of short stories but I recently read a volume of F.Scott Fitzgerald ones and they were really rather good. I also read a collection called 'Nocturnes' by Kazuo Ishiguro which I highly recommend but then again I would recommend his novels even more highly...
 
The ONLY Stephen King I can get into are his short stories. That one in Night Shift about the doctor stranded on a deserted island? Still gives me chills.

My favorite short stories are by Hemingway: The Killers, A Clean Well Lighted Place, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, A Day's Wait and Fifty Grand (which is on my bucket list to make into a movie someday.)

I like good crime short fiction, too. Ian Rankin, the Scottish detective writer, has a book of shorts which read almost like a weekly police serial.
 
More novella, but "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by far my favorite short story-it's been an important part of my life :)
 
"The Puppet Masters" & "Door into Summer" come to mind as short stories that I really enjoyed. Both are by Heinlein. Vonnegut has some nice ones as well.
 
Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" stories.
My favourite of all of them is either "The Body Politic" as it's an interesting take on body horror, or "Son of Celuloid" as it combines my two passions in life, horror fiction and cinema. :D
 
If you like short stories, and if you haven't already, you must get these two collections:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Granta-Book-American-Short-Story/dp/1847080405/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1300759114&sr=8-2

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anchor-Book-American-Short-Stories/dp/1400034825/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300759149&sr=1-3

Both of those collections contain essential short story reading, stuff that has really helped me to develop my own writing, and to understand and manipulate stories the way I want to.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Richard Yates - Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Every story in that collection is a favourite.

One of my favourite short stories is called "The Caretaker". I forget who it's by, but it's stunning. Edit: Anthony Doerr - Must Read.

Most disappointing short stories were those by Yann Martel - after Life Of Pi, I expected more, but to be fair they were early on, his first published work.
 
Thought I'd throw another Stephen King one in the mix called The Long Walk. It was in a collection called The Bachman Books. I read it almost 20 years ago and it still pops into my head from time to time.

Michael
 
Thank you everyone! I wasn't getting emails about this thread so I didnt know there was so many replies!

Uranium City said:
The ONLY Stephen King I can get into are his short stories. That one in Night Shift about the doctor stranded on a deserted island? Still gives me chills.

My favorite short stories are by Hemingway: The Killers, A Clean Well Lighted Place, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, A Day's Wait and Fifty Grand (which is on my bucket list to make into a movie someday.)

I like good crime short fiction, too. Ian Rankin, the Scottish detective writer, has a book of shorts which read almost like a weekly police serial.
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I've read Night Shift and didn't see one about a doctor stranded on an island... can you remember what it was called?

Dreadylocks said:
"The Puppet Masters" & "Door into Summer" come to mind as short stories that I really enjoyed. Both are by Heinlein. Vonnegut has some nice ones as well.
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Cool, got Door Into Summer... looks good!

danjama said:
If you like short stories, and if you haven't already, you must get these two collections:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Granta-Book-American-Short-Story/dp/1847080405/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1300759114&sr=8-2

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anchor-Book-American-Short-Stories/dp/1400034825/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300759149&sr=1-3

Both of those collections contain essential short story reading, stuff that has really helped me to develop my own writing, and to understand and manipulate stories the way I want to.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Richard Yates - Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Every story in that collection is a favourite.

One of my favourite short stories is called "The Caretaker". I forget who it's by, but it's stunning. Edit: Anthony Doerr - Must Read.

Most disappointing short stories were those by Yann Martel - after Life Of Pi, I expected more, but to be fair they were early on, his first published work.
Click to expand...

Excellent post... thank you! Those will keep my busy for a while...

Michael Allen said:
Thought I'd throw another Stephen King one in the mix called The Long Walk. It was in a collection called The Bachman Books. I read it almost 20 years ago and it still pops into my head from time to time.

Michael
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Cool... I just bought it online as soon as I read that post... everyone says it's a must read.

Id like to add James Lee Burke's short story collections, I haven't read them but my mum swears by them. I just bought them both:

The Convict
Jesus out to Sea
 
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