Your Absolute Favorite 3 Short Stories or Collections...What Are They?

[twg144]

As a short story author and fantasy writer, I am always interested to know what others view as their favorite short stories of all time, or just recently in the past year. Would love to see Name of short story or collections and author here of your Top 3 (or more if you wish)!

Mine are:

O'Henry - Gift Of The Magi
Vonnegut - Welcome To The Monkey House (collection)
Cheever - The Swimmer

[flipside]

If you're looking for something published in 2011, my top three anthologies/collections would be:

1) Eclipse Four edited by Jonathan Strahan
2) Teeth edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
3) After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh

Other anthologies/collections that I liked from further back though:

Interfictions 2 edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzack
Eclipse Three edited by Jonathan Strahan
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling/Kelly Link and Gavin Grant
Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy series edited by Rich Horton
Philippine Speculative Fiction series (various editors, usually Dean Francis Alfar)

We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle
The Fantasy Writer's Assistant by Jeffrey Ford
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss
Objects of Worship by Claude Lalumiere
Twelve Collections and the Teashop by Zoran Zivkovic
The Kite of Stars and Other Stories by Dean Francis Alfar

[James Everington]

Just three? Wow that's tough; I love short stories.

Without thinking about it too much:

The Dark Descent anthology (great anothology of horror)
High Lonesome - Joyce Carol Oates
Dubliners - James Joyce

With honorable mentions for Raymond Carver, Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas Ligotti, Richard Yates, Katherine Mansfield, Standley Domwood, James Tiptree Jr., ......

[jumbojohnny]

I am sorry that I cannot recall the exact editions / names of the collections, but here goes :

1. Edgar Allan Poe's short story collection which included the Telltale Heart. You got more for your money with this fella, at least I think so.
2. Late Night on Watling Street - Bill Naughton ( there seems to be different editions of this, with different stories. The one I read included 17 Oranges.)
3. Machines are Everywhere - a compendium of short stories - all sci-fi, but all both comic and serious at the same time.

[Geoffrey]

Just three - that's tough but let me see ....

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Fat Farm by Orson Scott Card
Blood Music by Greg Bear

[Tony Richards]

Metamorphosis -- Franz Kafka.
The Scythe -- Ray Bradbury.
Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes -- Harlan Ellison.

[Harry Shannon]

That IS tough.

Off the top of my head, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
The Distributor by Richard Matheson

[jmoralee]

Here are three collections that impressed me:

The Convict and Other Stories by James Lee Burke - evocative literary stories

The Prisoners and Other Stories by Ed Gorman - great crime stories

Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons - superb SF

[twg144]

Incredible amount of diversity...amazing. Love these lists!

[Krista D. Ball]

I love Douglas Smith's collection. It was one of my 2011 recommended reads. Nearly every single story was nominated or won the Aurora Award (a well-respected fan award for SF&F in Canada)



If you are a dark vampire fan (more horror than paranormal romance), Evolve is on my 2010 recommend list:

[Todd Trumpet]

Short Stories:

1.  "NIGHTFALL" by Isaac Asimov
2.  "THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS" by Ursula K. LeGuin
3.  "THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY" by James Thurber

Todd

P.S.  @

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

@Geoffrey:

I read an interesting article in "Game Informer" magazine (January issue) recently that told about the process of making "I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM" into a video game back in the 90's.  It was particularly interesting to hear about the interaction with Harlan Ellison himself, who had a hand in the adaptation.  [I have my own story about a Harlan Ellison encounter, but I'll save that for another time.]  I couldn't find the article itself online (you might be able to with a little digging), but I did find something interesting:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/12/01/see-i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream-in-its-entirety.aspx

In a follow-up post to the article, Game Informer has provided a link to a YouTube video in which someone recorded the entire 3.5 hour experience of playing the resulting video game.

If you're interested, you can take a look (and jump around on the timeline, of course).

Finally, I've always liked your avatar!  D'oh Logical!

[djgross]

A very difficult question...

The two collections that immediately came to mind were:  You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon and Masterpieces in Miniature by Agatha Christie



Loved this collection of interconnected short stories set in and around the Army base at Fort Hood, Texas.   Received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.     

Masterpieces in Miniature by Agatha Christie showcased a different detective (Poirot, Miss Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin) in the thirty nine stories.   Sadly, this book is not available for Kindle and appears to be out of print (even though it was published in 2005).   I clicked the "I want this book available on Kindle" link    

[Mike McIntyre]

1. Hills Like White Elephants -- Ernest Hemingway
2. Cathedral -- Raymond Carver
3. Strays -- Mark Richard

[nogdog~6op6ou]

The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories by Roger Zelazny
Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions, various authors (edited by Harlan Ellison)
The assorted "Jeeves" stories/collections by P.G. Wodehouse

(But if you ask me tomorrow, I may change my mind.)

[Tony Richards]

Favorite 3 collections?

Tales of Mystery and Imagination -- Edgar Allen Poe.
Deathbird Stories -- Harlan Ellison.
The October Country -- Ray Bradbury.

[KateEllison]

Tough question...

I will probably usually reach for old favorites when asked this question, like "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson or "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. For collections, I love stuff by Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, and Flannery O'Connor especially.

[Todd Thorne]

Three collections that I'm quite fond of are:

I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
The Illustrated Man -- Ray Bradbury
Tales of Known Space -- Larry Niven

[Mike McIntyre]

I love stuff by Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, and Flannery O'Connor especially.

This fascinates me. Carver is my absolute favorite short story writer, but I've never read Oates. For someone who loves Carver, which JCO story or collection would you recommend?

[Tony Rabig]

Re: Carver -  Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? is probably a good place to start.

Absolute favorites?  Couldn't possibly narrow it down.  But here are a few collections I'd never want to find missing from my shelves:

Shatterday; Angry Candy - both by Harlan Ellison
Collected Fictions - Jorge Luis Borges
The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (13 volumes)
The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (6 volumes)
The Goldin Boys - Joseph Epstein
The Stories of Ray Bradbury
The Third Level; I Love Galesburg in the Springtime - both by Jack Finney

[tkkenyon]

Wow. I'm so common. Almost everything I like has already been mentioned.

Perhaps we all have excellent taste.

I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones (changed my life.)

Cathedral by Raymond Carver

TK Kenyon

[SylviaLucas]

Ooh, fun thread.

Three favorite short stories:

"Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut
"Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver

(I don't care. I'm adding one more!)

"Soldiers of the Republic" by Dorothy Parker

[StephenLivingston]

The Tell-Tale Heart and others by E. A. Poe; The Birthmark and others by N. Hawthorne; my own.
Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.

[KateDanley]

Ooo!  Good call on the O. Henry!  Sometimes I think I'm the only one who has ever heard of him...  You said I can nominate collections right?  In that case, The Collected Works of O. Henry!  I was rather fond of his "The Ransom of Red Chief".  I LOVED "I Am Legend", and didn't know it was a short story, so was a little confused when I started the next chapter and was like, "What is going on....OOOOOH!"  And I'm also going to have to go with "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury, too.  Totally wonderful!  There's my short list!

[StoutWriter]

I love threads like this; I always find cool new stuff to read!

My top three faves? In chronological order:

1) "The Cask of Amontillado," by Poe
2) "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," by Hemingway

My third one is a toughie, because I can't remember the author or title, or anthology (I found it in a library 5 or 6 years ago, but never saw it again after I returned it). Anyway, it dealt with a man who fell in love with a skeleton, and his ensuing descent into madness. Creepy, twisted, but impossible to turn away from. Since I can't recall any of the major details, I'll list my next-favorite, which is:

3) "Bigfoot Stole My Wife," by Ron Carlson.

[purplepen79]

1. The Best of Roald Dahl  (can't pick just one story from this amazing anthology--most twisted collection of stories ever--Roald Dahl was a genius)

2. William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"  Best southern gothic horror story ever

3.  Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"  Read this in 8th grade, have never been able to get it out of my mind.  A character that reminds me of James Bond on safari ends up on the island from Lost