Ask HN: What's a favorite short story of yours?

19 pointsby RKoutnikvor 9 Jahren21 comments

It's a lovely Sunday here and I'm on the hunt for some short-form reading. I assume this crowd will lean towards scifi but that's not a requirement for this thread.

I'll start with AutoFac, a Phillip K. Dick story about living in a post-scarcity world where things get thoroughly pizzled: https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1955-11/Galaxy_1955_11#page/n71/mode/2up

20 comments

thorinvor 9 Jahren

https://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-bandit/

willsteppvor 9 Jahren

The Swimmer by John Cheever and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula LaGuin are my favorite short stories. So much depth and feeling packed into such tiny packages!

DrScumpvor 9 Jahren

Robert Arthur - "The Marvelous Stamps of El Dorado"

Frederick Forsyth - "The Shepherd"[0]

[0] A great live reading from Al Maitland (aired nationwide across Canada on CBC every Christmas):

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/fireside-al-maitland-rea...

DrScumpvor 9 Jahren

Correction: Frederick Forsythe

StClairevor 9 Jahren

I like Salman Rushdie's "East-West," "9 June 2015“ about people who never die from Alan Lightmans Einstein's Dreams, if you like ghost stories I recommend JS Le Fanu's "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street."

andrei_says_vor 9 Jahren

Eight O'clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson which was the basis for the movie They Live.

Read it here: http://www.whale.to/b/eight_o.html

The Egg by Andy Weir http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

blairbeckwithvor 9 Jahren

"They're Made Out Of Meat" by Terry Bisson: http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html

"Scroogled" by Cory Doctorow: http://www.crimeflare.com/doctorow.html

tjalfivor 9 Jahren

Here a couple of my favorites.

http://ficly.com/stories/1456 - be careful what you wish for

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beasts_and_Super-Beasts/The_O...

alashleyvor 9 Jahren

I like Who Moved my Cheese - Dr. Spencer Johnson

http://jef.mentalis.org/hersenspinsels/downloads/WhoMovedMyC...

JSeymourATLvor 9 Jahren

The Complete Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway >http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4625.The_Complete_Short_S...

bradcompvor 9 Jahren

I really like Different Kinds of Darkness by David Langford. http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-kinds-of...

bottlerocketvor 9 Jahren

"The Outsider" by H.P. Lovecraft: http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx

wazanatorvor 9 Jahren

The Burning Chrome collection by William Gibson is always worth a read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome_(short_story_co...

salukivor 9 Jahren

Zen Shorts is one of my favorites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Shorts

jelliclesfarmvor 9 Jahren

It's Monday but if I have think of a non sci-fi short story for a lovely Sunday, it will have to be anything from Eggs, Beans and Crumpets by P.G.Wodehouse for me.

modvor 9 Jahren

The A&P by John Updike

http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/

romanhnvor 9 Jahren

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov is a classic one - http://multivax.com/last_question.html

jfaucettvor 9 Jahren

much of O. Henry, "The gift of the Magi", and "The Last Leaf" are really good. Also virtually anything by Borges, "The Library of Babel" is a nice place to start.

Nadyavor 9 Jahren

You're probably already familiar with it - but for those who are not. A form of the Library of Babel exists online [0]. Also includes an image form of every image that has ever existed and ever will exist (at a specific size/resolution). Mostly noise. :)

[0] https://libraryofbabel.info

pcmaffeyvor 9 Jahren

Borges

All of them.

But one of my favorites: A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)

gbarnesvor 9 Jahren

The Euphio Question by Vonnegut is quite fun.

theresapatvor 9 Jahren