Favorite short stories online
 

I love short stories. The author has to develop a character or idea in a concise manner and with a limited amount of words.

I saw that my favorite short story ever is available for reading online and is linked below. I would think that a lot of newer publications wouldn't be available online. So, if you have a short story you like and it can be found online, post a link here.

If nothing else, I'll read it.

My first submission is The Rocking Horse Winner, by DH Lawrence.

I hate short stories. Except for my fanfic ones.

Well, thanks for the info. :cool:

you're welcome. I could give you tons and tons of sites, but I didn't think you'd be interested. If you are a big fan of a particular tv series or something, just google that + fanfic, fanfiction, or anything like that, and you might find something you like.

I doubt it. No offense, but I was talking about real literature.

right, which is why I didn't offer before.

Oh, it's good. I didn't expect many to warm up to this thread.

No offense to you. If you offer a suggestion, I will read it.

I heart Lawrence. I recently went to his ranch outside of Taos. I really am surprised at the amount of work that is put into it in the middle of nowhere, considering the short amount of time he spent there. His memorial is there as well. There is an area that you can write him a message. I thought that was great.

I didn't know that he had lived in Taos.

He's one of my top three. Beautiful writing, imho.

:)

He had a large ranch near Questa. I met a man the other day that was on a trip there before he died. It was on his to-do list as he had written his papers in cilloege on Lawrence. He seemed very excited to finally go after all these years. It was touching really.

I started out this thread with one of my favorite writers...but there are so many more.

For instance, Stephen King wrote some great short stories. Some were made into movies that were also good: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. The Body (Stand By Me.)

Just looking for a little lit talk. It doesn't have to be famous, if it's online and you can post it...do it. Don't tell me you hate it all then post nothing.

I'm always open to broadening horizons.

One of my favorite short stories, which I am no longer allowed to tell at bedtime goes:
"Once upon a time, the end."

It levels the playing field a bit.

My ex used to tell that same story.

Another submission in my cricket attraction thread. Read this years ago:

A Mother's Tale by James Agee

My favourite non-lit story, which I could only find in rull in an audio version. Party Food by Mort Castle.

The classic genre short story in my opinion, in that it leaves you wanting more, far more about the world it is set in. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut.

I don't really like this short story, but it sticks in my head and I have to reread it periodically. Actually I find most of Mansfield's stories equally painful, the hopelessness and unhappiness of her characters, their unfulfilled desires, trammeled lives and unspoken dreams. This one is that at its apogee in my opinion. Daughters of the Late Colonel by Katherine Mansfield.

I'm not a great short story fan to be honest. Many non-genre short stories just seem to wander about and not achieve much. Children get better short stories with a beginning, a middle and an end - and a happening in between. But even as a child, if I picked a library book up, interested and excited by it, and realised it was a short story book I'd invariably put it back down again.

Oh, I do like Ray Bradbury's though. And Roald Dahl's.

Thanks Sundae...I will read these later. :)

I think what I like about short stories is that they often leave you wanting more. Like any great art, it isn't all given to you. There often is no common beginning, middle, denouement, end...it leaves you to think and wonder about the possibilities. They are a small slice of a life, feasible or not, that speak to a different level in me.

I really like A Nine-Mile Walk, and was surprised to find it on-line. I read The Rocking Horse Winner years ago and don't remember much about it. I'll have to look it up.

It was from a peanuts strip where Linus badgers Lucy into reading him a bedtime story, she finally relents and that is the story she tells him.:sniff:

That must be where he got it.

I used to know a guy who called me Lucy, after Lucy Van Pelt. Imagine that.

:comfort:

Most of the shorts that I like or love probably aren't available online. You know, that pesky copyright business?

This place has a bunch

My favorites are Poe, Lovecraft, and Conan Doyle for "old" stuff. My favorite modern short story writers are Harlan Ellison and Chuck Palahniuk.

Cold Women, Kept Safe by Jessica Pierce

I like this story a lot:
http://www.fictionontheweb.co.uk/scrabble.html

Guts by Chuck Palahniuk

WARNING: Extremely graphic descriptions not for readers with sensitive stomachs. Actually, the use of the word stomach was probably a really bad choice here. People with any type of sensitivity should probably not click on the above link.

Oh, and there's a really annoying flashy banner on the page. Just scroll so it's above the top of your browser window. Trust me on this.

I don't care for fanfic myself, but I gotta say that's the exact attitude people had toward short stories before they were considered literature. It's also the same attitude that was held toward virtually every craft that is now regarded as art (novels, film, etc.).

I hope I don't live to see the day that fanfic becomes literature. Though, in a way, most fiction is fanfic of a sort.

Since I couldn't stop laughing while reading that, I guess that makes me insensitive...