The Aptly Named, Sam’s Blog

I like reading, but unfortunately, I don't get much time to read for pleasure these days. Adding to that sorry state of affairs is the fact that I'm a slow reader. When I do read nowadays, it is more of non-fiction. On those rare occasions that I do read fiction, I love a good short story.

Apart from being concise, short stories stay focused and leave a lot to the imagination. They appeal to the minimalist in me. They build around a key idea or theme and my favorite kind have a twist or climax at the very end. An extreme and wonderful example is Ernest Hemmingway's six word story: "For sale: Baby shoes. Never used".

Here are some short stories that I came across on the internet in recent times. I think they are marvelous and recommend them to you, my imaginary readers. One for each of you three

• The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
• Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

If you have a short story recommendation, leave a comment!

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1. trashdelivery May 23, 2006 1:14 am

   If you liked Asimov and C. Clarke, it is essential you will read the trilogy of Foundation, from Asimov, and 2001-A space Odissey from C. Clarke.
   These guys are also great: Frank Herbert - Dune Series; Orson Scott Card - Ender’s Game; and William Gibson - Burning Crome (it is a book of short stories.
   Good Scifing!
   Coco
   http://cocosworld.wordpress.com

2. samgrover May 23, 2006 3:14 pm

   Thanks for the recommendations. All of those are on my list I’ve seen Dune and 2001, but haven’t read either. I’ve read a couple of books by William Gibson, Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition. I’ll definitely check out Burning Chrome. I didn’t realize/remember that it was a collection of short stories.

3. karmagroovy May 24, 2006 12:37 pm

   I love Arthur C. Clarke and I have yet to read that short story. Thanks!

4. Suhyun June 1, 2006 9:28 pm

   There is one short story (“This Blessed House”)I heard from “This American Life” just recently. I ended up buying the book that has that story. It’s not a science-fiction, but a very good one. The author’s name is Jhumpa Lahiri.. the title of the book is “interpreter of maladies”.

5. samgrover June 1, 2006 10:34 pm

   I’ve read ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’. There were more than a few stories that I liked in that book. I don’t remember the titles, but I do remember outlines from some of those stories. I can’t recall if ‘This Blessed House’ was one of those. Thanks for the tip!

6. suhyun June 2, 2006 7:45 am

   I had a feeling that you might already know the book. Oh, well.

7. chandni June 5, 2006 7:30 pm

   i am a big fan of short sroties too!!

8. Karmagroovy June 20, 2006 11:40 am

   Have you checked out The Unbinding on Slate.com? I don’t know if this qualifies as a short story since this is a work in progress and nobody knows where and when it will end. I think it’s pretty good SciFi faire! Check it out.

9. samgrover June 21, 2006 7:02 pm

   I hadn’t heard of it. Just checked it out to see what it’s all about. It’s a cool idea. I’ll wander over there some other time to read some of it. Thanks!