Suggestions for good and quick reading

May 18, 2009 7:32 AM

Looking for short story collection suggestions.

I'm at a particularly busy point in my life where I've not been able to read nearly as much as I'd like. Short stories are perfect at the moment since they are small chunks of reading, i.e. I can finish a story and put the book down for a couple of weeks without having to struggle getting back into a narrative.

When it comes to short stories I enjoy genre fiction quite a bit, science fiction, horror, even fantasy (although I haven't come across a lot of short form fantasy). A few short story collections I've enjoyed recently have included Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman, 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill, and The Living Dead (zombie short stories by various authors). I'm already planning on ordering The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (this is what got me thinking about the question), but would hopefully like to add a few more things to my Amazon cart.

posted by imabanana to writing & language (23 comments total)

It sounds like you'd enjoy Harlan Ellison.
posted by moxiedoll at 7:38 AM on May 18

The VanderMeer's have put out some great anthologies recently, notably The New Wierd, Best American Fantasy and Steampunk.

Also, you can never go wrong with Roald Dahl.
posted by jbickers at 7:42 AM on May 18

The Best American Short Stories and Non-Required Reading collections are maybe a tad obvious of a suggestion, but they're great no matter what your taste in genre is. You personally sound like you'd also enjoy Aleph and Ficciones by Borges.
posted by zoomorphic at 7:43 AM on May 18

Kelly Link has three great collections, and you know, the old Roger Zelazny short story collections remain awesome, though hard to find in print.
posted by Malla at 7:49 AM on May 18

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang is a great collection. Some of his stuff is scifi, some fantasy, some might be classified as alternate history. All are beautifully written and well thought out.

Mothers and Other Monsters by Maureen McHugh. Mostly scifi, some fantasy or mainstream (depending on how you define those genres.)

Beaker's Dozen by Nancy Kress. Kress writes science fiction with an emphasis on biology (genetic modification, for example.)

Seconding Kelly Link.
posted by creepygirl at 7:52 AM on May 18

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth. Your tastes sound like my tastes, and I loved them.

Also, maybe Legends and Legends II for the fantasy?
posted by alynnk at 7:53 AM on May 18

Drown, a collection of short stories by Junot Díaz, who is adept at writing about physical dislocation; conveying the price that is paid for leaving culture and homeland behind.
posted by netbros at 8:03 AM on May 18

The first book I read on my Kindle was "Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories" by Steven Millhauser, and I loved it... my wife is reading it now on her Kindle, and seems to be enjoying it as well. It's beautifully written fiction : check this review at the New York Times
posted by newfers at 8:09 AM on May 18

Asimov has several large short story collections. I also really like Larry Niven and Spider Robinson for entertaining shorts.
posted by Caviar at 8:16 AM on May 18 [1 favorite]

Kelly Link's been mentioned twice, so here's links to two of her collections available as a free download from her publisher:

Stranger Things Happen

Magic For Beginners

plus all their available CC-licensed downloads, including the aforementioned Mothers and Other Monsters by Maureen McHugh, and The Ant King and other stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum which I have sitting on my desk right now, so I can dip into it while I work.

(and since this has been a point of confusion on MeFi before, yes, I own the company that hosts their site, and no, it's not a self link. I did, in fact, squeal like a fangirl when they started hosting with us, because I am one. I love their stuff.)

I really love LCRW (the zine published by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant), too, for short stories and poems, and every time Strange Horizons posts new stuff I devour it.
posted by annathea at 8:21 AM on May 18 [1 favorite]

The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois are great collections. I love picking up a copy and reading them, they're always full of wonder. Here's the latest, though a new one should be coming out in the next couple of months.
posted by Kattullus at 8:34 AM on May 18 [1 favorite]

Ray Bradbury's short stories perhaps?
posted by prufrock at 8:49 AM on May 18

I was ready to recommend Lahiri and Diaz, but I see that someone else already has. You might also try Hemingway's short stories or Raymond Carver's collections such as Cathedral or Where I'm Calling From.
posted by 6and12 at 8:53 AM on May 18

The Elephant Vanishes (Haruki Murakami) is an excellent bunch of stories. They're dreamlike. Quirky. Comforting. And very nicely written.
posted by hciadt at 8:53 AM on May 18

It sounds like you'd enjoy Harlan Ellison.
Deathbird Stories for instance.

Off on a totally different path, I always recommend Salinger's Nine Stories to anyone interested in a collection of short stories.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:00 AM on May 18

I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me when I posted earlier, but I think that Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams would be something you might like.
posted by 6and12 at 9:41 AM on May 18

I came in here to recommend 'The Living Dead' but was glad to see it on your 'already read' stack. It's one of the best collections I've read in years. Absolutely loved it. For anyone else who's interested, it's here at amazon.
posted by willmize at 9:51 AM on May 18

Back in front of a computer now, here's Asimov's Complete Stories Volume 1 and Volume 2; Niven's The Draco Tavern, Limits, and Flatlander; and Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (the first of many), Antinomy, and Melancholy Elephants.

There are other good ones, but that's a decent start.

For fantasy shorts, I really like this: 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories. They're all under 2000 words.
posted by Caviar at 12:00 PM on May 18

Etgar Keret has two great short story collections: The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and The Nimrod Flipout. Not exactly fantasy but some weird stuff happens.
posted by kbuxton at 4:38 PM on May 18

Oh, totally Kelly Link.

Also, Angela Carter is classic fantasy, and awesome. I've only read The Bloody Chamber, but looks like she has a full Collected Short Stories out.
posted by lillygog at 5:19 AM on May 19

You might also try one of Flannery O'Connor's collections -- they're not sci-fi, but they're satisfyingly smart, weird, and at times quite horrifying.
posted by LittlePumpkin at 9:47 AM on May 19 [1 favorite]

I've been reading the delightful Imaginary numbers : an anthology of marvelous mathematical stories, diversions, poems, and musings lately. Full of mind-blowing stuff.

It includes stories from Borges whose own Ficciones is amazing.

Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad is amazing too, and a story from it is included in Imaginary Numbers. Any of these three will make you happy.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 10:22 AM on May 19

Stephen King shines brightest in his collections of short stories. Night Shift and Skeleton crew. find them
posted by Redhush at 5:38 PM on May 19