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 Ascent by Ron Rash
10. I Spy by Graeme Greene
11. Snow by Anne Beattie
12. Rain by Somerset Maughham
13. ‘Paymon’s Trio’ by Colette de Curzon
14. The Story of my Dovecoat by Isaac Babel
15. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
16. Double Corner by Wallace Stegnar
17. Sea Loves Me by Mia Cauto
18. The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
19. A Country full of Sweets by Erskine Caldwell
20. Testimony of Pilot by Barry Hannah
21. Roses, Rhododendron by Alice Adams
22. While the Women are sleeping by Javier Marias
23. Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood (online)
24. Comfort by Jamal Brinkley
25. The Choc-Ice Woman by Mary Costello (New yorker)
26. ‘Heads of the Colored People’ by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
27. Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff
28. Unread Messages by Sally Rooney
29. Monster by Michael Czyzniejewski
30. Wrong Object by Mona Simpson
31. The Cliff by Charles Baxter
32. Arrival by Gurnaik Johal
33. Zero Pineapples by Timothy Willis Sanders
34. How to Make Love to a Physicist by Deesha Philyaw
35. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
36. Concrete Negro by Jocelyn Johnson
37. Twenty Minutes by James Salter
38. Marching Songs by Keith Ridgeway
39. Empty Air by Richard Smyth
40. Absit by Angelica Gorodischer
41. Death of a Clerk by Anton Chekhov
42. Ward number 6 by Anton Chekhov
43. A Chameleon by Anton Chekhov
44. Heat by Joyce Carol Oates (online)
45. Stock by Cynan Jones
46. The Yellow Ranch by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
47. Today Will be a Quiet Day by Amy Hempel
48. The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty
49. Aren't You Happy for Me? by Richard Bausch
50. Kids in Kindergarten by Corinna Chong (2021 CBC short story winner)
51. The Pocketbook Game by Alice Childress
52. Where You'll Find Me by Anne Beattie
53. Children on their Birthdays by Truman Capote
54. Daisy's Valentine by Mary Gaitskill
55. Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides (new Yorker)
56. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
57. The Duplicity of Hargraves by O. Henry
58. The H Street Sledding Record by Ron Carlson
59. Teenage Punk by Lucia Berlin
60. The Murders in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
61. My Son the Murderer by Bernard Malamud
62. The Hunter by E.L. Doctorow
63. The Prom Terrorists by Rabih Alameddine
64. Seven Floors by Dino Buzzati
65. Bettering Myself by Ottessa Moshfegh
66. My Apologies by Sam Lipsyte (New yorker)
67. They're not your Husband by Raymond Carver
68. Foaling Season by Aryn Kyle
69. The Worm in Philly by Sam Lipsyte
70. Peach Cobbler by Deesha Philyaw
71. Mr. Hadj's Sunset Ride by Saladin Ahmed
72. Just Before the War with the Eskimos by J.D. Salinger
73. Intruders of Sleepless Nights by Pamela Painter
74. Snowfall by Deesha Philyaw
75. The Republic of Empathy by Sam Lipsyte (New Yorker)
76. Making Friends by Joy Williams (Paris Review)
77. Concord 34 by Salley Rooney (online)
78. A Science for Being Alone by Daniel Alarcon
79. A Piece of Steak by Jack London
80. City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcon
81. Liquid Papers by Nicolette Polek
82. Keats at 24 by Caleb Crain (New Yorker)
83. Delivery by Bruce Barrow
84. St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell (online)
85. Peking Duck by Ling Ma
86. Happiest Moment by Lydia Davis
87. Rondine al Nido by Claire Vaye Watkins
88. Allah Have Mercy by Mohammed Naseehu Ali (New Yorker)
89. Shock of Birth by Cadwell Turnbull
90. Trebuchet by Avitus B Carle
91. The Face in the Mirror by Mohsin Hamid (New Yorker)
92. Former Marine by Russell Banks
93. The Metal Bowl by Miranda July (New Yorker)
94. Goodbye to the Road Not Taken by A.M. Homes
95. Extra by Yiyun Li
96. The Wind by Lauren Groff
97. The price by Neil Gaiman
98. October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman
99. A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
100. Snow Glass Apples by Neil Gaiman
101. Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark
102. Purity of the Turf by P.G. Wodehouse
103. Sara Cole: A Type of Love Story by Russell Banks
104. The Clearing by Luisa Mercedes Levinson
105. The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling
106. Two men by andrew porter
107. All Will be Well by Yiyun Li
108. Who, me a bum? by Luisa Valenzuela
109. A family supper by Kazuo Ishiguro
110. The Man of the World by Frank O'Connor (online)
111. Pet Milk by Stuart Dybek
112. The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
113. The Infamous Bengal Ming” by Rajesh Parameswaran (online)
114. Separating by John Updike
115. The Bulgarian Poetess by John Updike
116. A Conversation with my Father by Grace Paley
117. The Re-Encounter by Isaac Bashevis Singer
118. Taking Care by Joy Williams
119. Three People by William Trevor
120. China by Charles Johnson
121. Story by Lydia Davis
122. The Last Thing we Need by Claire Vaye Watkins
123. The Adventure Of The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle (online)
124. The Hitchhikers by Eudora Welty
125. Blood-burning Moon by Jean Toomer
126. Axolotl by Julio Cortazar 
127. Ambush by Donna Tartt
128. After Rain by William Trevor
129. Ten Year affair by Erin Somers
130. The Match by Colson Whitehead
131. The interior castle by Jean Stafford
132. Resurrection of life by William Saroyan
133. The resemblance between a violin case and a coffin by Tennessee Williams
134. Country Husband by John Cheever
135. Slaves on the Block by Langston Hughes
136. Who's Passing for Who by Langston Hughes
137. Liars in Love by Richard Yates
138. The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by Phenderson Djèlí Clark
139. You're Ugly too by Lorrie Moore
140. Koolau the Leper by Jack London
141. The Crime Wave at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse
142. Children On Their Birthdays by Truman Capote
143. *virginia is not your home*
144. The Way Up To Heaven, by Roald Dahl
145. Great Automatic Grammatizator by Roald Dahl
146. The Key by Isaac Bashevis Singer
147. Home for Christmas by Carson McCullers
148. O'Brian's First Christmas by Jeanette Winterson
149. Little Miss Sophie by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (online)
150. Any Further West by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
151. Christmas at Red Butte by Lucy Montgomery (online)
152. Santa Claus is a White Man by John Henrik Clarke
153. Charades by Lorrie Moore
154. Merry Christmas by Stephen Leacock
155. Christmas or the Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
156. 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. The Complete Stories of A.A. Milne
4. The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories
5. A Multitude of Sins by Richard Ford
6. Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford
7. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
8. Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
9. The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
10. Holler Child by Latoya Watkins
11. Far From Home by Walter Tevis
12. The Menace from Earth - Robert A. Heinlein (1959)
13. Aye, and Gomorrah and other stories by Samuel R. Delany
14. The Stories of Richard Bausch
15. Nine Inches by Tom Perotta
16. Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis
17. Where There Are Monsters by Breanne McIvor
18. The Paintree by Olive Senior
19. How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
20. Secret Lives, and Other Stories by Thiong'o
21. The Collected Breece D'J Pancake
22. The Best of Connie Willis
23. The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of his Mouth and Other Stories by Roger Zelazny
24. The Collected Stories of Chester Himes
25. Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
26. A Broken People's Playlist by Chimeka Garricks
27. Glimpse: An Anthology of Black British Speculative Fiction
28. Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Robarts)
29. The Collected Stories of William Trevor
30. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
31. The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan
32. The Awkward Black Man by Walter Mosley
33. Damned if I do by Percival Everett
34. Half an Inch of Water by Percival Everett
35. 21st century SF (Robarts)
36. Quintessence of Dust by Craig Wallwork
37. Collected Stories of Richard Yates
38. The Best of R.A. Lafferty (Robarts)
39. My Monticello by Jocelyn Johnson (TPL)
40. This is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara (Robarts)
41. Rock Springs by Richard Ford (Robarts)
42. The cost of living: early and uncollected stories of Mavis Gallant (Robarts)
43. Out there Screaming (Jordan Peele Anthology of Black Horror)
44. Perchance to Dreams by Charles Beaumont (cool cover, intro by Ray Bradbury)
45. Luminosity by Greg Egan
46. What is not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (Kindle)
47. Long, Last, Happy by Barry Hannah (Robarts)
48. Witness by Jamel Brinkley (Robarts)
49. Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver
50. A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley
51. Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem
52. Short stories of the civil rights movement : an anthology (Robarts)
53. Flash Fiction in America: 73 very short stories (Robarts)
54. Woman hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros (Robarts)
55. The Glassy, burning floor of Hell by Brian Evenson (UTL, online)
56. Dare the Sea by Ali Hosseini (Robarts)
57. Holler, Child (Stories) by LaToya Watkins
58. Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal (black muslim americans)
59. The King is Dead by Walter Tevis (TPL)
60. Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng (UTL, online)
61. The Flying Leap by Judy Budnitz (Robarts)
62. Rock Springs (Stories) by Richard Ford (Robarts)
63. Hunger: A novel and stories by Samantha Lan Chang (Robarts)
64. Each of us Killers by Jenny Bhatt (Robarts)
65. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (2013, Robarts)
66. From Death to Morning by Thomas Wolfe
67. The witness for the prosecution and other stories by Agatha Christie
68. More Pricks than Kicks by Samuel Beckett
69. The Collected Short Stories of Saki
70. The Sorcerers Apprentice by Charles Johnson
71. Lot by Bryan Washington
72. Waltzing the Cat by Pam Houston
73. Tender by Sofia Samatar (UTL online)
74. Sans Souci and other stories by Dionne Brand
75. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
76. Short Stories of Langston Hughes (UTL online)
77. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans (Robarts)
78. The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Robarts, Online)
79. Blue collar, white collar, no collar : stories of work
80. In Bed One Night and Other Brief Encounters by Robert Coover
81. Blood Feast: The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf (online)