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Hello everyone, I want to start reading short stories (between 100 to 200 pages) and I need a list from best short story books which is worth reading. I usually have hours of the day that I'm resting between work and like to read short and exciting stories to take pleasure from my rest. So thanks for giving me a list of the best short stories you read so I can get them. thank you

The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the best single-author collection I've ever come across. There have been others that I've liked better as I was reading them, but in the end I don't think anything comes close to the Holmes canon.

I like anthologies. The one I'm reading now is very good:

This is a question I cannot answer. I am in my 70s, and have been a voracious reader since I was about 5 years old. I have read literally hundreds of books, both fiction and nonfiction during my life. My taste is reading has been catholic (with a small c). How can I judge? Earnest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury, Louis L'Amour, etc. etc. So I cannot give you an answer. Sorry.

James Joyce's "The Dead."

None of the length you mention, but these are worth reading;

My Old Man - Hemingway
Boule De Suif - Maupassant
The Railwayman - Dickens
Ma Parker - Katherine Mansfield
Manual For Cleaning Women - Lucia Berger
Diamond As Big As The Ritz - Fitzgerald

Anything by Ring Lardner, John Cheever, Margaret Attwood or Eudora Welty.

KindaSkolarly wrote:The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the best single-author collection I've ever come across. There have been others that I've liked better as I was reading them, but in the end I don't think anything comes close to the Holmes canon.

I like anthologies. The one I'm reading now is very good:

Oh my god, I like "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" movie very much, But until today, I'm not reading this book, thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely add this book to my reading list. and the anthologies must be an amusing book.
Thanks a lot

ralfy wrote:James Joyce's "The Dead."

I'm a big fan of James Joyce and usually read or listen to his books on https://fidibo.com/ and I like "The Two Tramps" from this author, If you do not read this book today, I suggest you do not miss it at all.

Oh my god, I like "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" movie very much, But until today, I'm not reading this book, thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely add this book to my reading list.

If you like to read on a computer screen, the pdf at the link below is the best complete Holmes I've come across. You can right-click and download it to your hard drive to read at your convenience. Links within the document take you to the stories and/or the novel chapters. A very nice pdf:

https://mikesheedy.com/other-stuff/othe ... s-writing/

There are some other good story collections there, too--O'Connor, Faulkner, Maugham, Joyce. Good stuff.

When it comes to short stories, I like what we have in the New Testament. This article is very helpful:
5 Inspirational Bible Stories with Short Summaries
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/christian ... summaries/

I am partial to Twain, esp. the Million Dollar Bank Note, to O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi", to Jack London's "To Build a Fire", and to Harlan Ellison's stuff ("I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream", "A Boy and his Dog," "Repent, Harlequin" etc.). Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" is very thought-provoking. But I agree with the "experts" who argue that Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is the most horrifying of horror, and it gets my prize for the best.