4.23.2007

Short Story Short Challenge!


I just had a scathingly brilliant idea.


The Short Story Short Challenge!


Here's how it works: See my post below on Ten Favorite Short Stories.


1. Pick one story from the list you haven't read, that you vow to read.

2. List in the comment to this post which story you selected, PLUS a favorite story of yours that you want others to read.


I will compile a new list from all of the comments, and I will make my own selection of new short stories to read.




21 comments:

The Traveller said...

Excellent - I just picked up The Metamorphosis from the library today. I'll read it soon! Meantime, I really liked Winter Dreams by Scott Fitzgerald and Borges' Blue Tigers.

Anonymous said...

ooh, how fun. I would like to read Greenleaf by Eudora Welty. I recommend The Way We Live Now by Susan Sontag OR Where are you going, where have you been by Joyce Carol Oates.

bhadd said...

"Sea Oak" by Saunders I will read. He has good stuff at newyorker.com Video.

I cant pick "A Good Man is Hard to Find?" "Babylon Revisited" by F. Scott!

The Hood Company

Nova Ren Suma said...

Fun!

I want to read "The Babysitter" by Robert Coover.

Here's my list of 10 favorite short stories (at least that I can remember at the moment), if someone wants to try one of those:
http://novaren.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/10-favorite-short-stories/

darkorpheus said...

Great idea! Can I do 2 stories?

I pick "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "The Cathedral".

I would like to recommend Amy Bloom's "Love is Not a Pie" or "Silver Water" (I can never just settle for one) -- both stories can be found in her collection Come To Me.

Isabella K said...

I vow to read Cathedral, on the basis of its title.

I recommend Meiosis, by Italo Calvino.

litlove said...

Ok, I'm up for this - I'll either read the Flannery O'Connor or the Kafka (got to allow for a little caprice in there). Recommending is hard... ummmm, I think Heinrich von Kleist's The Marquise von O.

Eddie said...

my fave is "For Esme with Love and Squalor" by JD Salinger,
and I ma going to read the Hemingway short story.

Anonymous said...

I love this! I'm going to read "A Good Man is Hard to Find"--

and I recommend (among my favorite short stories), Toni Cade Bambara's "The Johnson Girls"

Anonymous said...

I like the sound of a Clean Well Lighted Place and also Greenleaf.

As for recommendations, I have none, I'm just not very well read in this area! Oh, wait a minute, Kate Sutherland's Making Love While the Kettle Boils.

Henk van Kampen said...

I'll read Hemingway's A clean, well-lighted place. My recommendation: La plage (The beach) by Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Bobby D. said...

I haven't read the Babysitter or Cathedral, so I will look for those.

I loved the short story "Cousin Lewis" by Jean Stubbs. I discovered it in an anthology "Women and Fiction" edited by Cahll. (an excellent book of short stories, all are gems.)

The interesting thing about "Cousin Lewis" is the unusual subject matter and how incredibly well Stubbs handles it.

Stubbs never wrote anything comparable to this, I searched out her works and was disappointed. never found anything as interesting as "Cousin Lewis".

SFP said...

I'll read the Faulkner.

I'll recommend Prouxl's Brokeback Mountain, if you haven't already read it. It's a good swift kick in the gut.

wishy the writer said...

This is a brilliant challenge. I have my list of 10 faves up at my blog post...

http://wishythewriter.blogspot.com/2007/04/great-short-story-meme-and-challenge.html

and I'm joining the challenge and reading "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin.

If you'd like online links to some short stories that you could read for this challenge, check my blog.

Thanks for the challenge. I'll let you know when my post is up about "Sonny's Blues."

Andi said...

I pick "Cathedral" and I recommend "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" by D.H. Lawrence!

verbivore said...

LK, this IS a scathingly good idea. I'm going to read the Faulkner and I propose "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin.

Kate S. said...

LK, I love this idea. I've been meaning to read more Eudora Welty, so I'm going to pick "Greenleaf" from your list. For my contribution, I recommend a recent favourite: "the book club" from Ali Smith's brilliant collection The Whole Story and other stories. I'll also endeavour to compile my own list of ten favourites to post on my blog...

Bobby D. said...

I love so many short stories, but must add this one to the list:

"the Schartz-Metterklume method" by Saki

one of his very best.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to join this challenge. I love short stories, though I feel that I don't read them often enough. I'm going to read:

A good man is hard to find by Flannery O' Connor

The Baby-Sitter by Robert Coover

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway

A favorite short story of mine is Grandmother's Nose by Robert Coover. It was published in
The Best American Short Stories of 2006

Celia said...

I'm the co-founder of a new literary magazine, Slice. Please check out our website and read about our debut issue, which includes an exclusive interview with Junot Diaz (author of the acclaimed short story collection, Drown). www.slicemagazine.org.

Grilsgood said...

Since I dont 'have a blog, will post what I read here.

1. Poe, Edgar Allan The Cask of Amontillado
2. Poe, Edgar Allan The Tell-Tale Heart
3. Poe, Edgar Allan The Fall of the House of Usher
4. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
6. The Christening by Guy de Maupassant
7. How the Leopard Got His Spot s by Rudyard Kipling
8. The Open Window by H. H. Munro (Saki)
9. A Slander by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
10. The Bell by Hans Christian Andersen