As promised, here is a list of the short stories I will read and review over the next little while. I've created a list of 50, and will review up to 3 each week! Depending on time, of course. The way in which I compiled this list was simple: I googled 'top short stories of all time' and read through all of the first page results. That was step 1. Step 2 was about choosing a page/result as the foundation for the list. Out of all the results, I chose a recommendation article published by Penguin Books titled, 50 Great Short Stories Everyone Should Read. I figured you can't go wrong with Penguin Books. I also just love their books, and by that I refer to their classic black spine and orange lettering. Hey, aesthetics go a long way, and yes, I do judge books by their cover. Don't pretend like you don't.
After selecting this article as the foundation for my final list, I compared its choice of short stories to the other lists I found. During the process, I kept a tally of how many times the short stories from the Penguin list reappeared on the other lists. Those stories that reappeared will form my 'Pressure List', meaning they better be good, considering they showed up more than once. Here is my final list:
1. Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin (1965) - 2
2. Godspeed and Perpetua by A. Igoni Barrett (2013)
3. I Bought a Little City by Donald Barthelme (1974)
4. The Night Driver by Italo Calvino (1967)
5. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver (1981)
6. The Swimmer by John Cheever (1964) - 1
7. Désirée’s Baby by Kate Chopin (1893)
8. The Landlady by Roald Dahl (1959)
9. The Outing by Lydia Davis (2010)
10. Private Tuition by Mr Bose by Anita Desai (1978)
11. Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier (1973)
12. A View from the Observatory by Helen Dunmore (2018)
13. Glittering City by Cyprian Ekwensi (1966)
14. In Plain Sight by Mavis Gallant (1993)
15. The Nose by Nikolai Gogol (1836) - 1
16. The Midnight Zone by Lauren Groff (2016)
17. Funny Little Snakes by Tessa Hadley (2017)
18. Alan Bean Plus Four by Tom Hanks (2017)
19. Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway (1925) - 1
20. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948) - 3
21. The Superstition of Albatross by Daisy Johnson (2017)
22. The Largesse Of The Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson (2018)
23. Araby by James Joyce (1914) - 2
24. What, of this Goldfish, Would You Wish? by Etgar Keret (2012)
25. The Daughters of the Late Colonel by Katherine Mansfield (1921)
26. A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. by Carson McCullers (1951)
27. Butterflies by Ian McEwan (1975)
28. Bettering Myself by Ottessa Moshfegh (2018)
29. The Elephant by Sławomir Mrożek (1957)
30. Runaway by Alice Munro (2004)
31. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami (1993)
32. Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov (1948) - 3
33. A Horse and Two Goats by R.K. Narayan (1960) - 1
34. Over the River and Through the Wood by John O'Hara (1934)
35. if a book is locked there's probably a good reason for that, don't you think by Helen Oyeyemi (2016)
36. Trilobites by Breece D'J Pancake (1977)
37. A Telephone Call by Dorothy Parker (1928)
38. Vampire by Intan Paramaditha (2019)
39. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman (1892) - 3
40. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1843) - 2
41. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (2013)
42. A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J D Salinger (1948) - 1
43. The Beholder by Ali Smith (2013)
44. Moonlit Landscape with Bridge by Zadie Smith (2014)
45. Remember This by Graham Swift (2014)
46. Minutes of Glory by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - 1
47. A Conversation About Bread by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (2018)
48. Elspeth's Boyfriend by Irvine Welsh (2009)
49. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (1888)
50. Bee Honey by Banana Yoshimoto (2000)
Pressure List:
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman (1892) - 3
Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov (1948) - 3
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948) - 3
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin (1965) - 2
Araby by James Joyce (1914) - 2
The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1843) - 2
Minutes of Glory by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - 1
A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J D Salinger (1948) - 1
A Horse and Two Goats by R.K. Narayan (1960) - 1
Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway (1925) - 1
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol (1836) - 1
The Swimmer by John Cheever (1964) - 1
So, there you have it! I won't be reading the stories in any particular order, but I will make sure to save the 'Pressure List' for last. I'm super excited to get started with these reviews, and, as always, I look forward to your thoughts as well!
Till next time!
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