Post a few of your favorite short stories

[red dog 1]

I have two co-favorite short stories:

- "Driving in the Spikes" by Harlan Ellison
- "The Horror on the # 33" by Michael Shea

Other short stories that I love include:

- "The Dead Woods" by Larry Tritten
- "The Three Most Important Things in Life" by Harlan Ellison
- "Three Bananas" by Larry Tritten
- "Gopher in the Gilly" by Harlan Ellison



A great short story that you can read for free is called;
"Raft" by Larry Tritten
(It can be found easily by doing a Google search)

[Va Lefty]

1. Here are a few of my favorites

Mars is Heaven Ray Bradbury
The Jaunt and Quitters Inc. Stephen King

[lunatica]

2. My lifetime favorite is The Ransom of Red Chief

By O'Henry

A rich kid is kidnapped for ransom and he terrorizes his kidnappers but when they try to give him back to his father, his father makes them pay him to take him back.

It's very funny.

[red dog 1]

3. That sounds like a good one!

[rurallib]

21. O'Henry could sure weave a great tale in a few pages

Loved every story of his I ever read.

[Shemp Howard]

4. Anything by O. Henry. nt

[red dog 1]

5. "Hey Moe, Hey Larry!"

(I like both Shemp and Curly)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Saki (H.H. Munro) wrote a whole bunch of really good ones.

I especially like Sredni Vashtar, Filboid Studge and Tobermory. https://americanliterature.com/author/hh-munro-saki Most of his stories are simultaneously funny and a bit dark.

[DFW]

40. Sredni Vashtar is one of my all time favorites of his!

"The Story-Teller" too.

[FSogol]

7. "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie

It can be read here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/04/21/what-you-pawn-i-will-redeem

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. I agree with anything by O. Henry! Great stuff.

I also like two collections of short stories.

The first is science fiction by Arthur C. Clarke. It's called "Reach for Tomorrow." Wonderful stuff, even if you're not that much into science fiction.

The second is a book of short stories by Stephen King called "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption."

[sarge43]

10. Another Clarke collection of short stories you might want to try

The Other Side of the Sky

[sarge43]

9. Mine

Three Skeleton Key, George Toudouze

Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Superiority, Arthur C. Clarke

Anything by Jean Shepherd

Second that on Ellison's The Three Most Important Things in Life

[red dog 1]

11. Harlan Ellison may be the most underrated American writer of the 20th century

(The sheer volume of his work is staggering)

[First Speaker]

15. Agreed. Ellison's range, outout, and sheer power is unmatched...

...both in and out of the SF genre. He is simply a great American writer, and his non-fiction--criticism, story intros, whatever--is every bit as impressive as his fiction. I suspect he'll be as famous 100 years from now as Poe or Lovecraft is today...

[red dog 1]

12. You should check out Ellison's "Driving in the Spikes"

It's every bit as good as "The Three Most Important Things in Life"

[sarge43]

14. Thanks. I'll seek it out.

I probably did read it back in the neolithic.

[red dog 1]

18. It's in "The Essential Ellison - A 35 Year Retrospective" (1987)

(From inside the book jacket)
By 1983, with the publication in Los Angeles Magazine of "Driving in the Spikes," Harlan Ellison had become what the Washington Post called "one of the great living American short story writers."

[sarge43]

20. Thank you, again

It'll go on the list - the ever expanding, never ending list.

By the way, according to Wiki he's published over 1,700 works.

[Skittles]

13. "The Body" - Stephen King

[First Speaker]

16. Fritz Leiber's "Coming Attraction"...

...from 1950, but could have been written yesterday. My list is from SF/Fantasy:

...It, Theodore Sturgeon
...The Sex Opposite, Theodore Sturgeon
..."All You Zombies--", Robert A Heinlein
...Vintage Season, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore
...The Dark Angel, Henry Kuttner
...Fondly Fahrenheit, Alfred Bester
...Come and Go Mad, Fredric Brown
...The Women Men Don't See, James Tiptree, Jr (aka Alice Sheldon)
...Slow Tuesday Night, R.A. Lafferty
...A Voice is Heard in Rama, Spider Robinson
...By His Bootstraps, Robert A Heinlein
...The Dead Lady of Clown Town, Cordwainer Smith (aka Dr Paul Linebarger)
...I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison

[Paladin]

17. It doesn't get any better than "The Destructors" by Graham Greene. (nt)

[Shrek]

19. "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson

Also this one, about a future where war is replaced by Olympic-style battles fought by teams of soldiers. There's a disturbing twist at the end.

http://like-the-hunger-games.blogspot.com/2011/12/books-like-hunger-games-survivor.html

[Brother Buzz]

22. Red Wind by Raymond Chandler

It deserves a mention because it has the best opening paragraph in literature, bar none.

"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."

[csziggy]

23. Pigs Is Pigs by Ellis Parker Butler

Maybe my second favorite after The Ransom of Red Chief.

Pigs is a fun story about shipment of a guinea pig and the angst caused by a stubborn station agent.

[Sinistrous]

24. Franz Kafka wrote several classics

My favorite is "Eine Altes Blatt", or, "An Old Leaf". Everyone should read it.

[diva77]

25. Bartleby the Scrivener by Melville

Also a story that was in the New Yorker years ago -- something about Mrs. Longo -- it was full of clever double entendres; wish I could find it!!

[stonecutter357]

26. Paw and Order .

[lapfog_1]

27. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber - Ernest Hemingway

[fNord]

28. Does Old Man and the Sea count as a short story?

If so, it’s one of my favorites I’ve ever read, but as a novel or “book” it’s down in the thousands....

You know....
Somewhere below “Critique of Pure Reason” but slightly better than “V For Vendetta.” Slightly

Either way, it’s still a badass and uplifting story of personal triumph. Witch, when it’s all said and done, is really what it’s all about. Shedding judgement not only from your peers, but from the young and strong, from the ritch and prosperous, from time itself, and most importantly, from the damning traps in your own mind and body that try to tell you “you just can’t do it!”

I reread that story every year or so, just as a reminder

[red dog 1]

33. "Old Man and the Sea" is a novel

(A great novel)

[pansypoo53219]

29. Green Thoughts. john collier. love his goodnights & fancies.

[TuxedoKat]

30. I love threads like this

Always bookmark them. Here are three of my all time favorites:

The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit by Rad Bradbury
Bernice Bobs her Hair - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mother to the World - Richard Wilson

The first two I've reread several times. The last one I finally tracked down and bought a used copy so I could reread it again.

[Rustynaerduwell]

31. "I See You Never"

Ray Bradbury. Originally published in 1947... 1947!

[Nay]

32. "Parson's Pleasure" by Roald Dahl and "A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison.

[UTUSN]

34. Actually, I want this thread's HELP to find one from elementary school: about the 1919 World Series

One of the disgraced players was reduced to playing in small league, playing with home town amateur teams.

The "hero" of the story was on Second Base. The home town kid adored/worshipped baseball players as heroes. Just as the kid was about to go to bat, somebody told him the Second Base dude was one of the 1919 players. The kid was devastated and decided to give him JUSTICE.

So the kid hit, (he was so good) just enough to get to Second, and SLID in there and SPIKED him. The Second didn't wince or anything, just sat down on the ground, with blood through his pants' leg, and pulled up the pants leg in front of the kid's eyes, and exposed tens of SCARS on his shin - because every damned little town he went to SOMEBODY would SPIKE him.

**********I've asked for help finding this here before (years), have Googled. One of the likely authors is Ring LARDNER, but have never found it. Apparently that story made an impression on me that has lasted, what, SIXTY or whatever years.

[TuxedoKat]

36. I hope you find it

that sounds like a story I would like to read as well. I recently purchased a Sci-Fi anthology that had a story in it that I'd read MANY years ago too as a teenager (mentioned in post above) but I remembered the title so it was easy to find. There are websites where you can post details about the story you are looking for in the hopes that someone will see it and know the story in question.

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/lost/novels.html

Hmmm, just had another idea for you. Maybe contact the Baseball Hall of Fame? Or send a message via their FB page? Maybe someone on staff will know someone affiliated with them who has an interest or knowledge in this area. Or contact a Librarian at the Cooperstown Library? Just some thoughts.

https://www.facebook.com/baseballhall

Good luck!!!

[UTUSN]

37. Wow, thanks *so* much for the good ideas, but most of all for understanding

It's not as though I have done all I could to find it, but it's been one of those nagging things over the years when I have a SPURT for a couple of days. And obviously it's not about sports, so my not being a sports aficionado rules out reading all the possible baseball stories. I *will* follow up on your ideas, thanks again!

[TuxedoKat]

38. Ahh, you're welcome!!!

If you find it, will you PM me the title? Would love to read it myself. I sure hope you find it!!!

[UTUSN]

39. Will do!

[3catwoman3]

35. The Necklace, by Guy du Maupassant, and...

The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry.

[DFW]

41. A diverse group:

Elsewhen -- by Robert Heinlein
Lost Legacy --by Robert Heinlein (the ULTIMATE anti-Republican feel-good short story!)
For Esmé, with Love and Squalor -- J.D. Salinger
Obstinate Uncle Otis -- Robert Arthur