Why stop at a short story? I'll go for a novel.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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High school teacher had us read Survivor Type - thus began my love for stephen king
Random shitposts on the internet have wiped away all the trauma I got from anything I read in school.
"The Long Rain" by Bradbury was the one that stuck with me.
The Dweller in the Gulf by Clark Ashton Smith.
Exit by Harry Farjeon.
"On the Quay at Smyrna" by Ernest Hemingway. A very short read, almost a vignette, but it left me depressed. Too on the nose for the current world situation.
They Bite by Anthony Boucher is like four pages long and had me jumping at every shadow in the corner of my eye for a week. I found it in my grandparents' copy of Alfred Hitchcock's 30 Best in Horror or something like that, bought a copy for the brother I like because it shook me so badly (I verified it was in there)
Hardfought, by Greg Bear. Sci-fi set in the far future, spoken with a military patois that is difficult to understand but is meant to highlight the alienness of the forever war that the story takes place in. Themes upon themes fifteen-plus layers deep, even though this is only a novella.
I have something north of 3,000 volumes in my library, and if I was to pick the most influential fiction story of my life, this would be it. I had difficulty reading it as a teenager who was typically reading at a university level while in high school, so it’s going to take serious effort by most to truly benefit from it. But when you finally understand those themes… holy shit.
By the Waters of Babylon still haunts me in the best way.
guy maupassant? e.g. the necklace
Recommend me one fellas