
Ask HN: What's a favorite short story of yours? - RKoutnik
It&#x27;s a lovely Sunday here and I&#x27;m on the hunt for some short-form reading.  I assume this crowd will lean towards scifi but that&#x27;s not a requirement for this thread.<p>I&#x27;ll start with AutoFac, a Phillip K. Dick story about living in a post-scarcity world where things get thoroughly pizzled: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;stream&#x2F;galaxymagazine-1955-11&#x2F;Galaxy_1955_11#page&#x2F;n71&#x2F;mode&#x2F;2up
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thorin
[https://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-
bandit/](https://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-bandit/)

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willstepp
The Swimmer by John Cheever and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula
LaGuin are my favorite short stories. So much depth and feeling packed into
such tiny packages!

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DrScump
Robert Arthur - "The Marvelous Stamps of El Dorado"

Frederick Forsyth - "The Shepherd"[0]

[0] A great live reading from Al Maitland (aired nationwide across Canada on
CBC every Christmas):

[http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/fireside-al-maitland-
rea...](http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/fireside-al-maitland-reads-
frederick-forsyth-s-the-shepherd-1.2472038)

~~~
DrScump
Correction: Frederick Forsyth _e_

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StClaire
I like Salman Rushdie's "East-West," "9 June 2015“ about people who never die
from Alan Lightmans _Einstein 's Dreams_, if you like ghost stories I
recommend JS Le Fanu's "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier
Street."

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andrei_says_
Eight O'clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson which was the basis for the movie
They Live.

Read it here:
[http://www.whale.to/b/eight_o.html](http://www.whale.to/b/eight_o.html)

The Egg by Andy Weir
[http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html](http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html)

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blairbeckwith
"They're Made Out Of Meat" by Terry Bisson:
[http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html](http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html)

"Scroogled" by Cory Doctorow:
[http://www.crimeflare.com/doctorow.html](http://www.crimeflare.com/doctorow.html)

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tjalfi
Here a couple of my favorites.

[http://ficly.com/stories/1456](http://ficly.com/stories/1456) \- be careful
what you wish for

[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beasts_and_Super-
Beasts/The_O...](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beasts_and_Super-
Beasts/The_Open_Window)

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alashley
I like Who Moved my Cheese - Dr. Spencer Johnson

[http://jef.mentalis.org/hersenspinsels/downloads/WhoMovedMyC...](http://jef.mentalis.org/hersenspinsels/downloads/WhoMovedMyCheese_DrSpencerJohnson.pdf)

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JSeymourATL
The Complete Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway
>[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4625.The_Complete_Short_S...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4625.The_Complete_Short_Stories)

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bradcomp
I really like Different Kinds of Darkness by David Langford.
[http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-kinds-
of...](http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-kinds-of-darkness/)

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bottlerocket
"The Outsider" by H.P. Lovecraft:
[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx](http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx)

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wazanator
The Burning Chrome collection by William Gibson is always worth a read.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome_(short_story_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome_\(short_story_collection\))

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saluki
Zen Shorts is one of my favorites
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Shorts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Shorts)

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jelliclesfarm
It's Monday but if I have think of a non sci-fi short story for a lovely
Sunday, it will have to be anything from Eggs, Beans and Crumpets by
P.G.Wodehouse for me.

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mod
The A&P by John Updike

[http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/](http://www.tiger-
town.com/whatnot/updike/)

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romanhn
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov is a classic one -
[http://multivax.com/last_question.html](http://multivax.com/last_question.html)

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jfaucett
much of O. Henry, "The gift of the Magi", and "The Last Leaf" are really good.
Also virtually anything by Borges, "The Library of Babel" is a nice place to
start.

~~~
Nadya
You're probably already familiar with it - but for those who are not. A form
of the Library of Babel exists online [0]. Also includes an image form of
every image that has ever existed and ever will exist (at a specific
size/resolution). Mostly noise. :)

[0] [https://libraryofbabel.info](https://libraryofbabel.info)

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pcmaffey
Borges

All of them.

But one of my favorites: A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)

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gbarnes
The Euphio Question by Vonnegut is quite fun.

