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. The Prom Terrorists by Rabih Alameddine
7. A Lodging for the Night by Robert Louis Stevenson
8. King Kong Korab by Pete Hsu
9. A Penny Short by Pete Hsu (Online)
10. The Egg by Sherwood Anderson
11. The Ascent by Ron Rash
12. I Spy by Graeme Greene
13. Snow by Anne Beattie
14. Rain by Somerset Maughham
15. ‘Paymon’s Trio’ by Colette de Curzon
16. The Story of my Dovecoat by Isaac Babel
17. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
18. Double Corner by Wallace Stegnar
19. Sea Loves Me by Mia Cauto
20. The Second Tree from the Corner by E.B. White
21. The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
22. A Country full of Sweets by Erskine Caldwell
23. Testimony of Pilot by Barry Hannah
24. Roses, Rhododendron by Alice Adams
25. While the Women are sleeping by Javier Marias
26. Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood (online)
27. Comfort by Jamal Brinkley
28. The Choc-Ice Woman by Mary Costello (New yorker)
29. ‘Heads of the Colored People’ by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
30. Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff
31. Unread Messages by Sally Rooney
32. Monster by Michael Czyzniejewski
33. Wrong Object by Mona Simpson
34. The Cliff by Charles Baxter
35. Arrival by Gurnaik Johal
36. Zero Pineapples by Timothy Willis Sanders
37. How to Make Love to a Physicist by Deesha Philyaw
38. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
39. Concrete Negro by Jocelyn Johnson
40. Twenty Minutes by James Salter
41. Marching Songs by Keith Ridgeway
42. Empty Air by Richard Smyth
43. Absit by Angelica Gorodischer
44. Death of a Clerk by Anton Chekhov
45. Ward number 6 by Anton Chekhov
46. A Chameleon by Anton Chekhov
47. Heat by Joyce Carol Oates (online)
48. Stock by Cynan Jones
49. The Yellow Ranch by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
50. Today Will be a Quiet Day by Amy Hempel
51. The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty
52. Aren't You Happy for Me? by Richard Bausch
53. Kids in Kindergarten by Corinna Chong (2021 CBC short story winner)
54. The Pocketbook Game by Alice Childress
55. Where You'll Find Me by Anne Beattie
56. Children on their Birthdays by Truman Capote
57. Daisy's Valentine by Mary Gaitskill
58. Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides (new Yorker)
59. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
60. The Duplicity of Hargraves by O. Henry
61. The H Street Sledding Record by Ron Carlson
62. Teenage Punk by Lucia Berlin
63. The Murders in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
64. My Son the Murderer by Bernard Malamud
65. The Hunter by E.L. Doctorow
66. The Prom Terrorists by Rabih Alameddine
67. Seven Floors by Dino Buzzati
68. Bettering Myself by Ottessa Moshfegh
69. My Apologies by Sam Lipsyte (New yorker)
70. They're not your Husband by Raymond Carver
71. Foaling Season by Aryn Kyle
72. The Worm in Philly by Sam Lipsyte
73. Peach Cobbler by Deesha Philyaw
74. Mr. Hadj's Sunset Ride by Saladin Ahmed
75. Just Before the War with the Eskimos by J.D. Salinger
76. Intruders of Sleepless Nights by Pamela Painter
77. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
78. The Republic of Empathy by Sam Lipsyte (New Yorker)
79. Making Friends by Joy Williams (Paris Review)
80. Concord 34 by Salley Rooney (online)
81. A Science for Being Alone by Daniel Alarcon
82. A Piece of Steak by Jack London
83. City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcon
84. Liquid Papers by Nicolette Polek
85. Keats at 24 by Caleb Crain (New Yorker)
86. Delivery by Bruce Barrow
87. St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell (online)
88. Peking Duck by Ling Ma
89. Happiest Moment by Lydia Davis
90. Rondine al Nido by Claire Vaye Watkins
91. Allah Have Mercy by Mohammed Naseehu Ali (New Yorker)
92. Shock of Birth by Cadwell Turnbull
93. Trebuchet by Avitus B Carle
94. The Face in the Mirror by Mohsin Hamid (New Yorker)
95. Former Marine by Russell Banks
96. The Metal Bowl by Miranda July (New Yorker)
97. Goodbye to the Road Not Taken by A.M. Homes
98. Extra by Yiyun Li
99. The Wind by Lauren Groff
100. The price by Neil Gaiman
101. October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman
102. A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
103. Snow Glass Apples by Neil Gaiman
104. Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark
105. Purity of the Turf by P.G. Wodehouse
106. Sara Cole: A Type of Love Story by Russell Banks
107. The Clearing by Luisa Mercedes Levinson
108. The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling
109. Two men by andrew porter
110. All Will be Well by Yiyun Li
111. Who, me a bum? by Luisa Valenzuela
112. A family supper by Kazuo Ishiguro
113. The Man of the World by Frank O'Connor (online)
114. Pet Milk by Stuart Dybek
115. The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
116. The Infamous Bengal Ming” by Rajesh Parameswaran (online)
117. Separating by John Updike
118. The Bulgarian Poetess by John Updike
119. A Conversation with my Father by Grace Paley
120. The Re-Encounter by Isaac Bashevis Singer
121. Taking Care by Joy Williams
122. Three People by William Trevor
123. China by Charles Johnson
124. Story by Lydia Davis
125. The Last Thing we Need by Claire Vaye Watkins
126. The Adventure Of The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle (online)
127. The Hitchhikers by Eudora Welty
128. Blood-burning Moon by Jean Toomer
129. Axolotl by Julio Cortazar 
130. Ambush by Donna Tartt
131. After Rain by William Trevor
132. Ten Year affair by Erin Somers
133. The Match by Colson Whitehead
134. The interior castle by Jean Stafford
135. Resurrection of life by William Saroyan
136. The resemblance between a violin case and a coffin by Tennessee Williams
137. Country Husband by John Cheever
138. Slaves on the Block by Langston Hughes
139. Who's Passing for Who by Langston Hughes
140. Liars in Love by Richard Yates
141. The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by Phenderson Djèlí Clark
142. You're Ugly too by Lorrie Moore
143. Koolau the Leper by Jack London
144. The Crime Wave at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse
145. Children On Their Birthdays by Truman Capote
146. *virginia is not your home*
147. The Way Up To Heaven, by Roald Dahl
148. Great Automatic Grammatizator by Roald Dahl
149. The Key by Isaac Bashevis Singer
150. Home for Christmas by Carson McCullers
151. O'Brian's First Christmas by Jeanette Winterson
152. Little Miss Sophie by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (online)
153. Any Further West by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
154. Christmas at Red Butte by Lucy Montgomery (online)
155. Santa Claus is a White Man by John Henrik Clarke
156. Charades by Lorrie Moore
157. Merry Christmas by Stephen Leacock
158. Christmas or the Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
159. 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)