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Favorite Short Stories?

Discussion in 'Book Discussion' started by TheKraken, Aug 10, 2012.

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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    I really love:

    The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
    Sound of Thunder - Ray Bradbury
    The Lady or the Tiger? - Frank Stockton
    The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K. Leguin
    I Am Legend - Richard Matheson (More of a novella)
    There Will Come Soft Rains - Ray Bradbury
    A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor
    Bartelby, The Scrivener - Herman Melville
    The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    Hills Like White Elephants - Ernest Hemingway
    Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allen Poe (and others)
    The Monkey's Paw - W.W. Jacobs
    Man from the South - Roald Dahl

    Among others... what about everyone else?
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    Bellerophon Member

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    You've named a few of mine already. But some of my others are:

    "Evidence" - Isaac Asimov
    "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" - Harlan Ellison
    "The Exiles" - Ray Bradbury
    "Kaleidoscope" - Ray Bradbury
    "Born of Man and Woman" - Richard Matheson
    "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands" - Stephen King
    "As Others See Us" - Christopher L. Bennett
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    Lily Lilac I'm really resistant to change, guys....

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    Most of the Bordertown stories. It's what I love about the series. Most of the "books" are actually short story anthologies, some of which you can read or listen to in Podcast form here. What I love about these is that they'r all growing up stories in their own ways, but they talk to, rather than down to the YA readers and don't shy away from serious issues that young people do face, and all with a touch of magical whimsy.
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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    Ooh yeah, I forgot about "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," that should be on my list as well. It's veeeery creepy. I don't think I've read the Bordertown stories. They sound interesting though ^^
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    Lily Lilac I'm really resistant to change, guys....

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    Give it a try! The link I provided goes to some free samples. :)
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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    Thanks! I will definitely check it out!^^
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    smartichoke harry potter

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    oh, man.

    "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver. hands down.

    i read this years ago and it has stuck with me ever since.
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    Dumbledore's Panties And the mist upon the hill

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    WONDERFUL TOPIC <3 Much love to it!

    The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs, A Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe, and Lamb to Slaughter by Roald Dahl. I loved these as a child and I still love them now, they're my absolute favourites! They're not the most cheeriest of short stories, that I know xD I liked them as a little boy ahaha but hey, I like dark stories.

    Edit: allkdakdakd. I see you have Lady or the Tiger... what... you have such great tastes (all of you do T ___ T) *explodes*
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    Lily Lilac I'm really resistant to change, guys....

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    Oh man, how could I forget?

    A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Magical Realism at its finest *drools*
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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    Ooh, Raymond Carver is good. I haven't read "Popular Mechanics" (*adds to list along with "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"*) but I think "Little Things" is amaaaazing.

    I think I also have a penchant for dark stories.
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    smartichoke harry potter

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    "Popular Mechanics" and "Little Things" are actually the same story!! it got retitled later on, i'm not sure why. but i agree, it is pretty amazing.
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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    Oh, haha. I had noooo idea. That's awesome! Yay!

    I forgot to add "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. It really is a classic, with the creepy man hunting and all that.
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    white russian tasty

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    Anything by Jorge Luis Borges is phenomenal. I'm very fond of "The Garden of the Forking Path" and "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." I also love Chekhov. "The Little Trilogy" is great - three interconnected short stories ("The Man in a Case," "Gooseberries," and "About Love").

    But if you like Doctor Who, Borges is the author to try.
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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    I am obsessive about Doctor Who. I've really got to check out Borges^^
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    Chele Writer:odd being that transforms caffeine to books

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    @TheKraken got mine in their very first line. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Such a great example of cutting off a story at exactly the right moment to leave the reader going OH MY GOD, because you know exactly what happens, but it's not written.

    I think the other reason I love that story so much is because it's such an epic example of foreshadowing. After reading it, you immediately have to go back to look at all the lines you thought absolutely nothing about, but actually it all combines to tell you exactly what was happening.
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    Naminote Sugarmuffindoll

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    Forever Overhead, by David Foster Wallace. I love to be immersed in the writing style and words of the author.

    The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami is like a mixed bag of short stories. Some are good, some are... not so good. I think The Silence is quite astonishingly moving.
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    Vetiver Member

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    My favourite short story is "October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman, out of his collection Fragile Things.

    I also really like Padrika Tarrant's work - her collection Broken Things is excellent.

    And "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway.
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    TheKraken Close Your Eyes & Count to Ten

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    I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called, but I think it might be from Fragile Things or at least be by Neil Gaiman. Anyway, there was this short story that I (think) is his in which there is some couple and when they get married, they receive this book and the book is about them and I think it might write itself as their life goes on perfectly, but everything in the book shows there life going HORRIBLY and then yeah it goes on and there is a twist in the end. Well, regardless of who wrote it, it was very interesting...
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    anonymous651 Well, would you look at that...

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    The one I can think of at the moment is "The Smoky Glass Goblet" by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky.
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    Red Writing Moderator

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    Oscar Wilde's The Fisherman and His Soul, because adult fairy tales are amazing. Also, I just auditioned for a musical adaptation and I'm rereading it like crazy.
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