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. Goodbye Marcus, Goodbye Rose by Jean Rhys
4. England, My England by D.H. Lawrence
5. The Import by Jai Chakrabarti
6. American express by James Salter
7. Chameleon by Anton Chekhov
8. The Prom Terrorists by Rabih Alameddine
9. A Lodging for the Night by Robert Louis Stevenson
10. King Kong Korab by Pete Hsu
11. A Penny Short by Pete Hsu (Online)
12. The Egg by Sherwood Anderson
13. The Ascent by Ron Rash
14. I Spy by Graeme Greene
15. Snow by Anne Beattie
16. Rain by Somerset Maughham
17. ‘Paymon’s Trio’ by Colette de Curzon
18. The Story of my Dovecoat by Isaac Babel
19. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
20. Double Corner by Wallace Stegnar
21. Sea Loves Me by Mia Cauto
22. The Hit Man by T.C. Boyle
23. The Second Tree from the Corner by E.B. White
24. The woman who lived in a restaurant by Leone Ross
25. The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
26. A Country full of Sweets by Erskine Caldwell
27. Testimony of Pilot by Barry Hannah
28. Roses, Rhododendron by Alice Adams
29. While the Women are sleeping by Javier Marias
30. Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood (online)
31. Comfort by Jamal Brinkley
32. The Choc-Ice Woman by Mary Costello (New yorker)
33. They Told Us Not to Say This by Jenn Alandy
34. Lara's Theme by Madhuri Vijay (New Yorker)
35. ‘Heads of the Colored People’ by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
36. Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff
37. The Toast by Rebecca Curtis
38. A clearing by Wendell Berry
39. The Hunter's Wife by Anthony Doerr
40. Unread Messages by Sally Rooney
41. The Hand by Colette
42. Psychology by Katherine Mansfield
43. Monster by Michael Czyzniejewski
44. Wrong Object by Mona Simpson
45. The Cliff by Charles Baxter
46. Arrival by Gurnaik Johal
47. Zero Pineapples by Timothy Willis Sanders
48. How to Make Love to a Physicist by Deesha Philyaw
49. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
50. Concrete Negro by Jocelyn Johnson
51. Twenty Minutes by James Salter
52. Marching Songs by Keith Ridgeway
53. Empty Air by Richard Smyth
54. Absit by Angelica Gorodischer
55. Death of a Clerk by Anton Chekhov
56. Ward number 6 by Anton Chekhov
57. A Chameleon by Anton Chekhov
58. The Chaser by John Collier
59. Heat by Joyce Carol Oates (online)
60. Putois by Anatole France
61. Stock by Cynan Jones
62. The Yellow Ranch by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
63. Minotaur by Jim Shepard
64. Today Will be a Quiet Day by Amy Hempel
65. The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty
66. Aren't You Happy for Me? by Richard Bausch
67. Kids in Kindergarten by Corinna Chong (2021 CBC short story winner)
68. The Pocketbook Game by Alice Childress
69. Where You'll Find Me by Anne Beattie
70. Children on their Birthdays by Truman Capote
71. Daisy's Valentine by Mary Gaitskill
72. Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides (new Yorker)
73. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
74. The Duplicity of Hargraves by O. Henry
75. The H Street Sledding Record by Ron Carlson
76. Teenage Punk by Lucia Berlin
77. The Murders in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
78. My Son the Murderer by Bernard Malamud
79. The Hunter by E.L. Doctorow
80. The Prom Terrorists by Rabih Alameddine
81. Seven Floors by Dino Buzzati
82. Bettering Myself by Ottessa Moshfegh
83. My Apologies by Sam Lipsyte (New yorker)
84. They're not your Husband by Raymond Carver
85. Foaling Season by Aryn Kyle
86. The Worm in Philly by Sam Lipsyte
87. Peach Cobbler by Deesha Philyaw
88. Mr. Hadj's Sunset Ride by Saladin Ahmed
89. Just Before the War with the Eskimos by J.D. Salinger
90. Intruders of Sleepless Nights by Pamela Painter
91. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
92. The Republic of Empathy by Sam Lipsyte (New Yorker)
93. Making Friends by Joy Williams (Paris Review)
94. Concord 34 by Salley Rooney (online)
95. A Science for Being Alone by Daniel Alarcon
96. A Piece of Steak by Jack London
97. Let's Play Dead by Senaa Ahmed
98. City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcon
99. Liquid Papers by Nicolette Polek
100. Keats at 24 by Caleb Crain (New Yorker)
101. Delivery by Bruce Barrow
102. St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell (online)
103. Peking Duck by Ling Ma
104. Time Invents Us by Anita Felicelli
105. Happiest Moment by Lydia Davis
106. Rondine al Nido by Claire Vaye Watkins
107. Allah Have Mercy by Mohammed Naseehu Ali (New Yorker)
108. Shock of Birth by Cadwell Turnbull
109. Trebuchet by Avitus B Carle
110. The Face in the Mirror by Mohsin Hamid (New Yorker)
111. Former Marine by Russell Banks
112. The Metal Bowl by Miranda July (New Yorker)
113. Goodbye to the Road Not Taken by A.M. Homes
114. Extra by Yiyun Li
115. The Wind by Lauren Groff
116. The price by Neil Gaiman
117. October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman
118. A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
119. Snow Glass Apples by Neil Gaiman
120. Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark
121. Purity of the Turf by P.G. Wodehouse
122. Sara Cole: A Type of Love Story by Russell Banks
123. The Clearing by Luisa Mercedes Levinson
124. The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling
125. Two men by andrew porter
126. All Will be Well by Yiyun Li
127. Who, me a bum? by Luisa Valenzuela
128. A family supper by Kazuo Ishiguro
129. The Man of the World by Frank O'Connor (online)
130. Pet Milk by Stuart Dybek
131. The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
132. The Infamous Bengal Ming” by Rajesh Parameswaran (online)
133. Separating by John Updike
134. The Bulgarian Poetess by John Updike
135. A Conversation with my Father by Grace Paley
136. The Re-Encounter by Isaac Bashevis Singer
137. Taking Care by Joy Williams
138. Three People by William Trevor
139. China by Charles Johnson
140. Story by Lydia Davis
141. The Last Thing we Need by Claire Vaye Watkins
142. The Adventure Of The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle (online)
143. The Hitchhikers by Eudora Welty
144. Blood-burning Moon by Jean Toomer
145. Axolotl by Julio Cortazar 
146. Ambush by Donna Tartt
147. After Rain by William Trevor
148. Ten Year affair by Erin Somers
149. The Match by Colson Whitehead
150. The interior castle by Jean Stafford
151. Resurrection of life by William Saroyan
152. The resemblance between a violin case and a coffin by Tennessee Williams
153. Country Husband by John Cheever
154. Slaves on the Block by Langston Hughes
155. Who's Passing for Who by Langston Hughes
156. Liars in Love by Richard Yates
157. The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by Phenderson Djèlí Clark
158. You're Ugly too by Lorrie Moore
159. Koolau the Leper by Jack London
160. The Crime Wave at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse
161. Children On Their Birthdays by Truman Capote
162. *virginia is not your home*
163. The Way Up To Heaven, by Roald Dahl
164. Great Automatic Grammatizator by Roald Dahl
165. The Key by Isaac Bashevis Singer
166. Home for Christmas by Carson McCullers
167. O'Brian's First Christmas by Jeanette Winterson
168. Little Miss Sophie by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (online)
169. Any Further West by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
170. Christmas at Red Butte by Lucy Montgomery (online)
171. Santa Claus is a White Man by John Henrik Clarke
172. Charades by Lorrie Moore
173. Merry Christmas by Stephen Leacock
174. Christmas or the Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
175. 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. The Deposition by Tobias Wolff
10. Petra by Greg Egan
11. The Safe Deposit Box by Greg Egan
12. The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
13. The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi
14. Small Offerings by Paolo Bacigalupi
15. I sexually identify as a helicopter by Isabel Fall
16. Wangs Carpets by Greg Egan
17. Closer by Greg Egan
18. Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
19. The Emissary by Ray Bradbury 
20. Standard Loneliness package by Charles Yu
21. Paycheck by PKD
22. The Father Thing by PKD
23. The Eyes Have it by PKD
24. The Sea Raiders by H.G. Wells
25. The Giving Plague by David Brin
26. The Man who Lost the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon
27. The Ghost Birds by Karen Russell (New Yorker)
28. It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby
29. Dodkins Job y Jack Vance
30. The ugly little boy by Isaac Asimov
31. Rain, rain go away by Isaac Asimov
32. Sandkings by George R.R. Martin
33. The whole town's sleeping by Ray Bradbury
34. The Women Men Don't see by James Tiptree Jr.
35. Hinterlands by Willian Gibson (Burning Chrome)
36. The Diary of a Rose by Ursula Le Guin
37. Mazes by Ursula Le Guin
38. Coming of Age in Karhide by Ursula Le Guin
39. The Wild Girls by Ursula Le Guin
40. The Mother of Seggri by Ursula Le Guin
41. Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin
42. Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
43. Billenium by JG Ballard
44. The Concentration City by JG Ballard
45. The Voices of Time by JG Ballard
46. Why I want to Fuck Ronald Regan by JG Ballard
47. The Commuter by PKD 
48. The Hanging Stranger by PKD
49. Asleep in Armageddon by Ray Bradbury
50. The Off Season by Ray Bradbury
51. The Fight of the Good Ship Clarissa
52. And the Moon be Still as Bright by Ray Bradbury
53. Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith
54. Algorithms for Love by Ken Liu
55. Simulacrum by Ken Liu (paper menagerie)
56. The Life Cycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
57. Bridesicle by Will McIntosh
58. Terminus by Stanislaw Lem

Collections:

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