# Your favorite five short stories? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982 "2003-03-08T23:05:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dahempfaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@dahempfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dahempfaerie)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/61 "2003-03-12T02:22:55Z")
These are my choices, in no particular order, other than that’s just the way they came to mind: **The Black Cat** - Edgar Alle Poe (I’m just a sucker for anything by Poe, but this one is great) **One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts** - Shirley Jackson (Since most everyone else has named **The Lottery** , I thought I’d throw out another one of Jackson’s goodies) **The Rats in the Walls** - H.P. Lovecraft (Reminds me of Poe in some ways - very dark, creepy) **The Ten O’clock People** - Stephen King (I’m a smoker, and this one always gives me chills) **Our Fair City** - Robert A. Heinlein (This is so different from Heinlein’s other works. Reminds me of when I was a kid watching dust devils dance about the farm - it seemed like they really were “alive”) ---
**Author:** ![coleridge78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@coleridge78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coleridge78)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/62 "2003-03-12T22:04:13Z")
“Also, there’s a great short story called The Overcoat by, Chekov, I believe, or some other Russian.” Nikolai Gogel. Also known for Taras Bulba and Diary of a Madman and The Ear, among others. All excellent. ---
**Author:** ![jehan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jehan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jehan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/63 "2003-03-13T05:48:30Z")
I’d put Gogol at the top of my list too- Probably the Overcoat is his best. Then- Queen of Spades (Pushkin) ``` The Most Dangerous Game (Connell)-(not great literature, perhaps, but I read it in high school and still remember it almost word for word, so it maust have had an impact.) The Gift of the Magi (O Henry) I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream (Ellison) ``` ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/64 "2003-03-13T07:36:24Z")
In no particular order: “Having Words” by Alan Dean Foster “The Time Traveller” by Spider Robinson “With Friends Like These…” by Alan Dean Foster “Wicker Wonderland” by Keith Laumer “The Defenseless Dead” by Larry Niven I like a wide range of short stories, but mainly I like funny ones, which accounts for the stories by Foster and Laumer in the list. “The Time Traveller” and “The Defenseless Dead” were serious stories that hit me like a gut punch the first time I read them, though. “The Time Traveller” is the perfect example of one of Spider Robinson’s greatest talents–his ability to lead us to empathize with someone in an utterly unfamiliar situation. Likewise, “The Defenseless Dead” represents Niven’s talent for examining the social implications of advanced technology. I would also like to nominate Niven’s “What Can You Say About Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers?” as the most oddly-titled short story. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zoomphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ec9cab/32.png) [@zoomphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoomphy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/65 "2003-03-13T10:18:09Z")
There are several already listed that I like, so I will try to be original with my own list: 1. “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne 2. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates 3. “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl 4. “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe 5. “Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/66 "2003-03-13T11:13:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by look!ninjas \* > \*\*Upon re-reading my list, I feel compelled to add a sixth (cheating, I know) - “No Flies on Frank” by John Lennon. IN HIS OWN WRITE is hilarious. \*\* OMG! You are the first person I have ever known who has mentioned this story! I have been a fan of John Lennon’s writing for over 35 years now (I started VERY young), and this is one of my faves. So, I will start my list with: **No Flies On Frank** by John Lennon **The Ransom of Red Chief** by O. Henry **The Amazing Jumping Frog of Calaveras County** by Mark Twain **Everything’s Eventual** and **The Mist** by Stephen King Like many other posters, my list could be so much longer, and there’s a Harlan Ellison that I surely would have included if I could have remembered the title clearly (something about a waltz, I think). Oh, well. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/67 "2003-03-13T11:52:19Z")
These threads are so hard… I’d like to nominate _Goliath_ by Neil Gaiman and _Horta_ by Guy de Maupassant. The rest of the slots will just have to be occupied by Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Harlan Ellison (_The Whimper of Whipped Dogs_…), HP Lovecraft and Kurt Vonnegut. And since so many people picked _Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge_, I’ll have to hunt it down and read it. ---
**Author:** ![cedric45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@cedric45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cedric45)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982/68 "2003-03-14T11:35:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WordMan \* > \*\*[B make a short story a good one - it has to be technically well written sentence by sentence, create a character or set of characters that the reader can care about within a paragraph or two, and, instead of taking them on a novel-size arc of realization and development and growth, instead, put that character into a situation where the reader can grasp multiple layers of emotional realization and be awed both by the character’s situation and the writer’s ability to capture it. \*\* “I Am Nothing” by Phillip K. Dick does this better than any other story I’ve ever read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-five-short-stories/159982.md?page=3)