I have a literature assignment to read a short story collection. All of the short stories have to total 150 at least for it to count and i am drawing a blank on what kind of short stories to read.

In general, what sort of books do you like to read?

If you like ghost/horror stories, I'd recommend any of M.R. James' work. Lord Dunsany for fantasy.

For mysteries, with a twist, try a collection of Patricia Highsmith's stories.

I like A.S. Byatt's retellings of fairy stories, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye.

Chronicle Books has a series of short story collections of stories from particular cities and states, such as New Orleans Stories, Chicago Stories and Florida Stories.

I hope by 'total 150' you mean 150 pages. First of all, you will want them to be good short stories and probably, for the sake of the teacher, ostensibly literary. Sherlock Holmes is out. A couple of Katherines come to mind as notable in the field: Katherine Anne Porter and Katherine Mansfield. You should be able to find something by either in any large bookstore or library.

I am sorry the touchstones are not working, but you can find them.

Have fun,

Robert

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2009, 7:56pm.

There's always the collections by Roald Dahl. Some people may only think of him in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory realm of story telling but he was much more than that. One of my favorite of his short stories is called Lamb to the Slaughter. Roald Dahl's short stories are wonderful and some have a twist you wouldn't imagine. Lamb to the Slaughter can be found in Skin and Other Stories, then there's The Umbrella Man, Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life but that's a much shorter story collection.

There are collections of "year's best" short stories published by several publishers, and your library will probably have some of them. Some of my favorite individual stories are "The Gift of the Magi" by O Henry, "Fire Watch" by Connie Willis, "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" by Gene Wolfe, "Everything that Rises Must Converge" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, "Barn Burning" by Faulkner, and many by Ursula LeGuin. If you're supposed to read a single-author collection, LeGuin (who writes F/SF) or O'Connor would be easy to find.

Jim, the ~actual~ name of Gene Wolfe's book is: The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories... and other stories. It's one of the first books I read when I started commuting between my home in northern NJ and my job in NYC. It's a great book.

Peepers,
I'd also recommend (Ray) Bradbury Stories. There's 100 of his best in less than 900 pages.

And, if you can find a copy, Almost Home by Jonathan Schwartz. You can read my review and decide for yourself.

If the Familiar Essay form qualifies as a short story, then I HIGHLY recommend 2 books by Anne Fadiman -- Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader and At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays.

Message edited by its author, Oct 21, 2009, 12:49am.

yes i did mean 150 pages thanks for correcting me!