Short Stories, Long Journeys: My Never Ending Reading List

The Library of Babel.

There are an endless amount of short-stories that I would like to read before departing from this Earth. Hopefully, this list will be a useful tracking system for individual stories and collections that pique my interest. Considering the sheer volume of works vying for my attention, I get the feeling that this might end up a disorganized dumping ground as opposed to an organized reference guide. Either way, I love making lists and excited to see what happens. 

I'm always open for recommendations and please leave them in the comments below.

Onwards and upwards and sideways and backwards!

Individual short stories:

1. Car Crash While Hitchhiking by Denis Johnson
2. Wash by William Faulkner
3. England, My England by D.H. Lawrence
4. American express by James Salter
5. Chameleon by Anton Chekhov
6. A Lodging for the Night by Robert Louis Stevenson
7. King Kong Korab by Pete Hsu
8. A Penny Short by Pete Hsu (Online)
9. The Egg by Sherwood Anderson
10. The Ascent by Ron Rash
11. I Spy by Graeme Greene
12. Snow by Anne Beattie
13. Rain by Somerset Maughham
14. ‘Paymon’s Trio’ by Colette de Curzon
15. The Story of my Dovecoat by Isaac Babel
16. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
17. Double Corner by Wallace Stegnar
18. Sea Loves Me by Mia Cauto
19. The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
20. A Country full of Sweets by Erskine Caldwell
21. Testimony of Pilot by Barry Hannah
22. Roses, Rhododendron by Alice Adams
23. While the Women are sleeping by Javier Marias
24. Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood (online)
25. Comfort by Jamal Brinkley
26. The Choc-Ice Woman by Mary Costello (New yorker)
27. ‘Heads of the Colored People’ by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
28. Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff
29. Unread Messages by Sally Rooney
30. Monster by Michael Czyzniejewski
31. Wrong Object by Mona Simpson
32. The Cliff by Charles Baxter
33. Arrival by Gurnaik Johal
34. Zero Pineapples by Timothy Willis Sanders
35. How to Make Love to a Physicist by Deesha Philyaw
36. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
37. Concrete Negro by Jocelyn Johnson
38. Twenty Minutes by James Salter
39. Marching Songs by Keith Ridgeway
40. Empty Air by Richard Smyth
41. Absit by Angelica Gorodischer
42. Death of a Clerk by Anton Chekhov
43. Ward number 6 by Anton Chekhov
44. A Chameleon by Anton Chekhov
45. Heat by Joyce Carol Oates (online)
46. Stock by Cynan Jones
47. The Yellow Ranch by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
48. Today Will be a Quiet Day by Amy Hempel
49. The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty
50. Aren't You Happy for Me? by Richard Bausch
51. Kids in Kindergarten by Corinna Chong (2021 CBC short story winner)
52. The Pocketbook Game by Alice Childress
53. Where You'll Find Me by Anne Beattie
54. Children on their Birthdays by Truman Capote
55. Daisy's Valentine by Mary Gaitskill
56. Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides (new Yorker)
57. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
58. The Duplicity of Hargraves by O. Henry
59. The H Street Sledding Record by Ron Carlson
60. Teenage Punk by Lucia Berlin
61. The Murders in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
62. My Son the Murderer by Bernard Malamud
63. The Hunter by E.L. Doctorow
64. The Prom Terrorists by Rabih Alameddine
65. Seven Floors by Dino Buzzati
66. Bettering Myself by Ottessa Moshfegh
67. My Apologies by Sam Lipsyte (New yorker)
68. They're not your Husband by Raymond Carver
69. Foaling Season by Aryn Kyle
70. The Worm in Philly by Sam Lipsyte
71. Peach Cobbler by Deesha Philyaw
72. Mr. Hadj's Sunset Ride by Saladin Ahmed
73. Just Before the War with the Eskimos by J.D. Salinger
74. Intruders of Sleepless Nights by Pamela Painter
75. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
76. The Republic of Empathy by Sam Lipsyte (New Yorker)
77. Making Friends by Joy Williams (Paris Review)
78. Concord 34 by Salley Rooney (online)
79. A Science for Being Alone by Daniel Alarcon
80. A Piece of Steak by Jack London
81. City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcon
82. Liquid Papers by Nicolette Polek
83. Keats at 24 by Caleb Crain (New Yorker)
84. Delivery by Bruce Barrow
85. St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell (online)
86. Peking Duck by Ling Ma
87. Happiest Moment by Lydia Davis
88. Rondine al Nido by Claire Vaye Watkins
89. Allah Have Mercy by Mohammed Naseehu Ali (New Yorker)
90. Shock of Birth by Cadwell Turnbull
91. Trebuchet by Avitus B Carle
92. The Face in the Mirror by Mohsin Hamid (New Yorker)
93. Former Marine by Russell Banks
94. The Metal Bowl by Miranda July (New Yorker)
95. Goodbye to the Road Not Taken by A.M. Homes
96. Extra by Yiyun Li
97. The Wind by Lauren Groff
98. The price by Neil Gaiman
99. October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman
100. A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
101. Snow Glass Apples by Neil Gaiman
102. Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark
103. Purity of the Turf by P.G. Wodehouse
104. Sara Cole: A Type of Love Story by Russell Banks
105. The Clearing by Luisa Mercedes Levinson
106. The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling
107. Two men by andrew porter
108. All Will be Well by Yiyun Li
109. Who, me a bum? by Luisa Valenzuela
110. A family supper by Kazuo Ishiguro
111. The Man of the World by Frank O'Connor (online)
112. Pet Milk by Stuart Dybek
113. The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
114. The Infamous Bengal Ming” by Rajesh Parameswaran (online)
115. Separating by John Updike
116. The Bulgarian Poetess by John Updike
117. A Conversation with my Father by Grace Paley
118. The Re-Encounter by Isaac Bashevis Singer
119. Taking Care by Joy Williams
120. Three People by William Trevor
121. China by Charles Johnson
122. Story by Lydia Davis
123. The Last Thing we Need by Claire Vaye Watkins
124. The Adventure Of The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle (online)
125. The Hitchhikers by Eudora Welty
126. Blood-burning Moon by Jean Toomer
127. Axolotl by Julio Cortazar 
128. Ambush by Donna Tartt
129. After Rain by William Trevor
130. Ten Year affair by Erin Somers
131. The Match by Colson Whitehead
132. The interior castle by Jean Stafford
133. Resurrection of life by William Saroyan
134. The resemblance between a violin case and a coffin by Tennessee Williams
135. Country Husband by John Cheever
136. Slaves on the Block by Langston Hughes
137. Who's Passing for Who by Langston Hughes
138. Liars in Love by Richard Yates
139. The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by Phenderson Djèlí Clark
140. You're Ugly too by Lorrie Moore
141. Koolau the Leper by Jack London
142. The Crime Wave at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse
143. Children On Their Birthdays by Truman Capote
144. *virginia is not your home*
145. The Way Up To Heaven, by Roald Dahl
146. Great Automatic Grammatizator by Roald Dahl
147. The Key by Isaac Bashevis Singer
148. Home for Christmas by Carson McCullers
149. O'Brian's First Christmas by Jeanette Winterson
150. Little Miss Sophie by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (online)
151. Any Further West by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
152. Christmas at Red Butte by Lucy Montgomery (online)
153. Santa Claus is a White Man by John Henrik Clarke
154. Charades by Lorrie Moore
155. Merry Christmas by Stephen Leacock
156. Christmas or the Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
157. Charity by Cara Blue Adams 

Sci-Fi:

1. Stitched to Skin Like Family is by Nghi Vo (Hugo winner 2025)
2. How to Raise a Kraken in your Bathtub by P. Djèlí Clark 
3. Cold Equations by Tom Godwin
4. Amnesty by Octavia Butler
5. The Pi Man by Alfred Bester
6. Tender by Sofia Samatar
7. Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders
8. The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny
9. Petra by Greg Egan
10. The Safe Deposit Box by Greg Egan
11. The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
12. The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi
13. Small Offerings by Paolo Bacigalupi
14. I sexually identify as a helicopter by Isabel Fall
15. Wangs Carpets by Greg Egan
16. Closer by Greg Egan
17. Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
18. The Emissary by Ray Bradbury 
19. Standard Loneliness package by Charles Yu
20. Paycheck by PKD
21. The Father Thing by PKD
22. The Eyes Have it by PKD
23. The Giving Plague by David Brin
24. The Man who Lost the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon
25. It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby
26. Dodkins Job y Jack Vance
27. The ugly little boy by Isaac Asimov
28. Rain, rain go away by Isaac Asimov
29. Sandkings by George R.R. Martin
30. The whole town's sleeping by Ray Bradbury
31. The Women Men Don't see by James Tiptree Jr.
32. Hinterlands by Willian Gibson (Burning Chrome)
33. The Diary of a Rose by Ursula Le Guin
34. Mazes by Ursula Le Guin
35. Coming of Age in Karhide by Ursula Le Guin
36. The Wild Girls by Ursula Le Guin
37. The Mother of Seggri by Ursula Le Guin
38. Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin
39. Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
40. Billenium by JG Ballard
41. The Concentration City by JG Ballard
42. The Voices of Time by JG Ballard
43. Why I want to Fuck Ronald Regan by JG Ballard
44. The Commuter by PKD 
45. The Hanging Stranger by PKD
46. Asleep in Armageddon by Ray Bradbury
47. The Off Season by Ray Bradbury
48. The Fight of the Good Ship Clarissa
49. And the Moon be Still as Bright by Ray Bradbury
50. Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith
51. Algorithms for Love by Ken Liu
52. Simulacrum by Ken Liu (paper menagerie)
53. The Life Cycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
54. Bridesicle by Will McIntosh
55. Terminus by Stanislaw Lem

Collections:

1. So Long Been Dreaming (ed. Nalo Hopkinson)
2. Love Beyond Body, Space and Time
3. Gorilla My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
4. Seabirds Are Still Alive by Toni Cade Bambara
5. The Complete Stories of A.A. Milne
6. The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories
7. A Multitude of Sins by Richard Ford
8. Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford
9. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
10. Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
11. The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
12. Holler Child by Latoya Watkins
13. Far From Home by Walter Tevis
14. The Menace from Earth - Robert A. Heinlein (1959)
15. Aye, and Gomorrah and other stories by Samuel R. Delany
16. The Stories of Richard Bausch
17. Nine Inches by Tom Perotta
18. Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis
19. Where There Are Monsters by Breanne McIvor
20. The Paintree by Olive Senior
21. How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
22. Secret Lives, and Other Stories by Thiong'o
23. The Collected Breece D'J Pancake
24. The Best of Connie Willis
25. The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of his Mouth and Other Stories by Roger Zelazny
26. The Collected Stories of Chester Himes
27. Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
28. A Broken People's Playlist by Chimeka Garricks
29. Glimpse: An Anthology of Black British Speculative Fiction
30. Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Robarts)
31. The Collected Stories of William Trevor
32. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
33. The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan
34. The Awkward Black Man by Walter Mosley
35. Damned if I do by Percival Everett
36. Half an Inch of Water by Percival Everett
37. 21st century SF (Robarts)
38. Quintessence of Dust by Craig Wallwork
39. Collected Stories of Richard Yates
40. The Best of R.A. Lafferty (Robarts)
41. My Monticello by Jocelyn Johnson (TPL)
42. This is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara (Robarts)
43. Rock Springs by Richard Ford (Robarts)
44. The cost of living: early and uncollected stories of Mavis Gallant (Robarts)
45. Out there Screaming (Jordan Peele Anthology of Black Horror)
46. Perchance to Dreams by Charles Beaumont (cool cover, intro by Ray Bradbury)
47. Luminosity by Greg Egan
48. What is not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (Kindle)
49. Long, Last, Happy by Barry Hannah (Robarts)
50. Witness by Jamel Brinkley (Robarts)
51. Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver
52. A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley
53. Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem
54. Short stories of the civil rights movement : an anthology (Robarts)
55. Flash Fiction in America: 73 very short stories (Robarts)
56. Woman hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros (Robarts)
57. The Glassy, burning floor of Hell by Brian Evenson (UTL, online)
58. Dare the Sea by Ali Hosseini (Robarts)
59. Holler, Child (Stories) by LaToya Watkins
60. Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal (black muslim americans)
61. The King is Dead by Walter Tevis (TPL)
62. Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng (UTL, online)
63. The Flying Leap by Judy Budnitz (Robarts)
64. Rock Springs (Stories) by Richard Ford (Robarts)
65. Hunger: A novel and stories by Samantha Lan Chang (Robarts)
66. Each of us Killers by Jenny Bhatt (Robarts)
67. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (2013, Robarts)
68. From Death to Morning by Thomas Wolfe
69. The witness for the prosecution and other stories by Agatha Christie
70. More Pricks than Kicks by Samuel Beckett
71. The Collected Short Stories of Saki
72. The Sorcerers Apprentice by Charles Johnson
73. Lot by Bryan Washington
74. Waltzing the Cat by Pam Houston
75. Tender by Sofia Samatar (UTL online)
76. Sans Souci and other stories by Dionne Brand
77. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
78. Short Stories of Langston Hughes (UTL online)
79. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans (Robarts)
80. The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Robarts, Online)
81. Blue collar, white collar, no collar : stories of work
82. In Bed One Night and Other Brief Encounters by Robert Coover
83. Blood Feast: The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf (online)