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Your Favorite Collection of Short Stories

I quite enjoyed

'Dubliners' by James Joyce

There was another, but can't think of it right now.
 
I've got to choose just one? I go through stages where I find short stories very, very satisfying to read.

Firstly, my favourite:

Old Songs in a New Cafe - Robert James Waller
Waller is the author of Bridges of Madison County, although this was the first of his works that I ever read. His writing is simply beautiful in this book and while I did enjoy Bridges when I read it later, this is a far better display of his talent. He writes about the things that he loves, including his cat, his family, travel and nature. My favourite story is about his cat, Roadcat, who they took in one day and became Waller's constant companion until he died. I'm not normally one who cries when I read, but this one leaves me near tears every time.

These other books are in no particular order:

Shortcuts - Raymond Carver
The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (a recent discovery!)
The Picador Book of the Beach
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More - Roald Dahl (A classic for everyone, I think!)
 
really want to know?

I don't know, but the ones i really enjoyed were "Wicked" Woman Whodunit? and 3 Brides for 3 bad Boys ... very sweet, funny and short... :D
 
Saki, any of his collections. Some of his stories are only 2 or 3 pages long, and all are wickedly clever and funny, though sometimes in a not very nice way. Lots in there about evil aunts who get what's coming to them (he was raised by two maiden aunts who were strict and did not like children; they were immortalized in stories like "Srendi Vashtar" and "The Lumber Room")And! He was an Edwardian, which is nearly as good as a Victorian, to my mind.

My favorite Saki stories are "Mrs. Packletide's Tiger", "The Story Teller", "The Toys of Peace", "The Open Window" and "The Reticence of Lady Anne" - which starts off like this, just to give you an idea:

"Egbert came into the large, dimly lit drawing-room with the air of a man who is not certain whether he is entering a dovecote or a bomb factory, and is prepared for either eventuality".

He writes beautiful, fluid, epigrammatic sentences of a kind that don't seem to exist anymore. Many of his stories end with a surprise twist in the last few sentences. Well worth picking up, and wonderful to read just before bed when you don't have time to get into something longer.
 
The Collected Short Stories of Robert Graves.

or possibly the Collected John Cheever.

possibly Jean Stafford's short stories.

The Nick Adams stories are also a pleasure, by Hemingway.
 
My favorite is the first collection of short stories I ever read, and the first Stephen King book I had ever read: "Graveyard Shift".

Some gems, and some turds, but all well written (IMHBAO)
 
The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe;

Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, Night Shift, Everything's Eventual, Four Past Midnight, and Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen the King. 'haven't read Nightmares and Dreamscapes yet.
 
I really enjoyed the Illustrated Man by RaY Bradbury. his short stories are brilliant- really thought provoking stuff loaded with imagery.
 
I hardly ever read collections of short stories, as I often find it disappointing when a good story ends too quickly, and they often don't have much substance to captivate the reader.

However I did enjoy Pastoralia by George Saunders. The stories were imaginative and original.
 
Stewart - he's fantastic! Yes, he does write some does but what author doesn't? Spanky was really good. I just read Breathe which reminded me of Ballard's stuff. Did you like the books you've read to date?
 
there was this one collection of short stories i read that had a story called Flowers for Algernon...it had some of my fave short stories in it. Anyone no what i am talking about?
 
"Flowers for Algernon" won the Hugo award for best science fiction novella in 1959. It has appeared in many anthologies. My favorite anthology that includes it is the collection of Hugo winners edited by Isaac Asimov.
 
my favorites would be allan poe's collections, and jeffrey archers a quiver full of arrows (not sure if this is the one which really liked, the other two collections were pretty good too)
 
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