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What is the best short stories have you ever read?

A dedicated forum for discussing and celebrating your favorite short stories and short story authors.
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Wought1992
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What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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
KindaSkolarly

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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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:

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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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.
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ralfy
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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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James Joyce's "The Dead."
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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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.
Wought1992
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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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:

Image
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
Wought1992
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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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.
KindaSkolarly

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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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.
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KevinMcCabe
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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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/
Academic writer, university lecturer and blogger based in London
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Harry Marks
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Re: What is the best short stories have you ever read?

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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.
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