

Ask HN: What are your favorite short stories? - Kompany

&quot;Symbols and Signs&quot; by Vladimir Nabokov is one of my favorites: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;1948&#x2F;05&#x2F;15&#x2F;symbols-and-signs
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27182818284
Typing this out I realize most are science fiction, but they're really good
ones.

* Neutrino Overdrive — One day in the 1950s, in the desert of California where the drag racers line up facing the Christmas lights, a new challenger appears. He is tall with a large forehead and olive colored skin. He wants to race.

* Breakfast at Tiffany's — technically a novella, but reads really fast. Different than the movie and better (in my opinion)

* Flowers for Algernon — One of the classics

* Country of the Blind — in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king

* The Last Question — this is reposted so much on HN and Reddit that if you haven't seen it, yet, just wait a week :)

* The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever — Just _wow_. Actually a lot of the stories in _Carbide Tipped Pens_ are really good. It is a good collection.

* The Nostalgianauts — It is easier to find this in audio than as a short story. It is in some collection somewhere

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demircancelebi
I recently read Profession by Isaac Asimov and I loved it. Here it is:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9568027](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9568027)

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cafard
"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki "Judgment Day" by Flannery O'Connor "The Laughing
Man" by J.D. Salinger "Bezhin Meadow" by Turgenev "Regulus" or "Mary Postgate"
by Kipling "The Prince of Darkness" by J.F. Powers.

If novellas are permitted (and somebody else included one), the "Hadji Murad"
by Tolstoy has to be on the list.

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gmuslera
One that i love to put as reference, specially when dealing with time travel
and the dangers of knowing the future, is PKDick's Meddler.

Maybe is not the most emotive (Tolkien's Leaf by Niggle and Ted Chiang's Story
of your life are superior in that) or the most far into the future one
(Asimov's The last question should be required reading), nor even the funniest
one (hard pick, Asimov's The endochronic properties of resublimated
thiotimoline fits there, if even because the story behind). But not is a so
bad option.

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LarryMade2
A Logic Named Joe by Murray Leinster - for 1946 was pretty interesting bit on
possible consequence of global information and AI.
[http://www.baen.com/chapters/w200506/0743499107___2.htm](http://www.baen.com/chapters/w200506/0743499107___2.htm)

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LarryMade2
Hey, there’s a 1950s audio play version -
[http://ia802508.us.archive.org/31/items/OTRR_Dimension_X_Sin...](http://ia802508.us.archive.org/31/items/OTRR_Dimension_X_Singles/Dimension_X_1950-07-01__13_ALogicNamedJoe.mp3)

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palakchokshi
Here is an ultra short story I read somewhere.

He woke up to the sound of screams "Daddy!! Daddy!!". Fearing the worst he ran
to his son's bedroom. He saw his son crying in the light from the open door.
He rushed over to soothe him. The boy said "Daddy there's a ghost under by
bed.". "There are no such things as ghosts", he said standing up."Here I'll
show you", he said bending down to peek under the bed. He saw his son under
the bed and the boy said "Daddy there's a ghost on my bed."

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brickcap
I love anything by Saki and Guy de Maupassant. Premchand was a great Indian
short story writer. Many of his works are available in English.

Haven't found any mystery short stories that are better than Sherlock Holmes.
Labours of Hercules was good though.

My all time favourite: The Bet by Anton Chekov

[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1732/1732-h/1732-h.htm#link2H...](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1732/1732-h/1732-h.htm#link2H_4_0017)

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daltonlp
Anything Ted Chiang writes.

