Suggestions wanted from Short Story Readers

After to many years I've gotten got back into my reading. I'm happy to report I can't stand being without a book in my hand or near me every waking hour. My interests are all over the place from World War II history to philosophy. I was thinking of getting back into novels however, I remember the great novelist Jack London was also a great short story writer. Decades ago I read a collection of his short stories and I was impressed and entertained by his writing in that form.

So I'm looking for suggestions in any of its forms. Also, is their a list of award winning short stories published every years?

Thank you,

If you're into horror (and really short stories), read the works HP Lovecraft.

Welcome to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut


Here is a glimpse into the authors mind.

The Smart Bunny


The leading character was a rabbit who lived like all the other wild rabbits, but who was as intelligent as Albert Einstein or William Shakespeare. It was a female rabbit. She was the only female leading character in any novel or story by Kilgore Trout.
She led a normal female rabbit's life, despite her ballooning intellect. She concluded that her mind was useless, that it was a sort of tumor, that it had no usefulness within the rabbit scheme of things.
So she went hippity-hop, hippity hop toward the city, to have the tumor removed. But a hunter named Dudley Farrow shot and killed her before she got there. Farrow skinned her and took out her guts, but then he and his wife Grace decided that they had better not eat her because of her unusually large head. They thought what she had thought when she was alive--that she must be diseased.

Some dandies here:

http://www.onlineclasses.org/resources/the-50-best-short-stories-of-all-time/

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is one of my favorite short stories.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe are some of the must read authors.

Probably my favorite short story author is Raymond Carver. He's got an acidic wit that I love.

Chuck Palahniuk has also got some really good, more modern, short stories.

Cosmos Mariner said:

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is one of my favorite short stories.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe are some of the must read authors.

Probably my favorite short story author is Raymond Carver. He's got an acidic wit that I love.

Chuck Palahniuk has also got some really good, more modern, short stories.

Click to expand...

Those are precisely the two I would have started with. Lets not forget Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle. All these writers(I believe) at one time or another wrote short stories and periodicals for newspapers. Fine artisans at their trade we all agree.

AvariCe said:

If you're into horror (and really short stories), read the works HP Lovecraft.

Click to expand...

I'm open to anything. I did read a wiki about Lovecraft and he looks like a an interesting writer to check out.

August West said:

Some dandies here:

http://www.onlineclasses.org/resources/the-50-best-short-stories-of-all-time/

Click to expand...

That should keep me busy.

Thank you,

Consider reading O. Henry. One his better known stories is "The Ransom of Red Chief"

Great authors for short stories:

John Updike
William Trevor
Jhumpa Lahiri
Raymond Carver
Andrea Barrett

Check out "best of" collections for Anton Chekhov (no doubt in translation), Ernest Hemingway ... and James Joyce's Dubliners.

David in Boston said:

I'm open to anything. I did read a wiki about Lovecraft and he looks like a an interesting writer to check out.

Click to expand...

I like his work a lot. Everyone else I've shown it didn't share the same enthusiasm.

Flannery OConner.
Written in a different time and different place, but I really enjoy her writing style. USPS put her picture on a stamp this year.

I agree with Poe, Twain, Dickens and Hemingway. Great authors and a lot of themes among just those four names.

Don't forget about Oscar Wilde and Henry David Thoreau. I've always loved Oscar Wilde's works because the man was only slightly insane - LIKE ME

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

I used to subscribe to Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock mags. Usually one or two really good stories each issue, and several tolerable ones. You never knew what the next story held. Both are still published, I had them both on Kindle subscriptions for a long time.

AvariCe said:

If you're into horror (and really short stories), read the works HP Lovecraft.

Click to expand...

I second H.P. Lovecraft. He can be difficult to read, but your probably already familiar with allot of concepts from his Cthulu Mythos. Arkham Asylum from Batman comes from Lovecraft.

If you like fantasy, checkout Michael Moorcocks Eternal Champion Series. The cool thing about his story's is Frank Frezetta did allot of illustrations for the series.

AvariCe said:

I like his work a lot. Everyone else I've shown it didn't share the same enthusiasm.

Click to expand...

If you haven't seen it, you should watch this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Spoz_1KyZiA

HolmerJ said:

If you haven't seen it, you should watch this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Spoz_1KyZiA

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't know this existed.

Mike H said:

Flannery OConner.
Written in a different time and different place, but I really enjoy her writing style. USPS put her picture on a stamp this year.

Click to expand...

I also did a wiki on her and she is one author I'm going to look at.

Thanks