Top Twenty... Short Stories

[AchtungBaby]

Taking the lead from Doc Creed — what’s your top twenty short stories? The novellas don’t count.

1. The Last Rung on the Ladder
2. New York Times at Special Bargain Rates
3. Summer Thunder
4. The Raft
5. The Reach
6. Strawberry Spring
7. Batman and Robin Have an Altercation
8. Afterlife
9. Bad Little Kid
10. Ayana
11. The Man in the Black Suit
12. The Jaunt
13. The Little Green God of Agony
14. Harvey’s Dream
15. 1408
16. You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
17. Night Surf
18. One For the Road
19. The Dune
20. Autopsy Room Four

That was hard!

 

[Doc Creed]

Taking the lead from Doc Creed — what’s your top twenty short stories? The novellas don’t count.

1. The Last Rung on the Ladder
2. New York Times at Special Bargain Rates
3. Summer Thunder
4. The Raft
5. The Reach
6. Strawberry Spring
7. Batman and Robin Have an Altercation
8. Afterlife
9. Bad Little Kid
10. Ayana
11. The Man in the Black Suit
12. The Jaunt
13. The Little Green God of Agony
14. Harvey’s Dream
15. 1408
16. You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
17. Night Surf
18. One For the Road
19. The Dune
20. Autopsy Room Four

That was hard!

Solid list. I better get busy.

 

[Doc Creed]

1. The Reach
2. The Man in the Black Suit
3. The Things They Left Behind
4. Graduation Afternoon
5. Batman and Robin Have An Altercation
6. That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French
7. A Death
8. The Last Rung On The Ladder
9. Graveyard Shift
10. Summer Thunder
11. The Monkey
12. Trucks
13. The Wedding Gig
14. Nona
15. The Reaper's Image
16. The Word Processor of the Gods
17. Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
18. Uncle Otto's Truck
19. The Woman in the Room
20. One For the Road

I chose a couple of these because they are fun and quintessential King and not necessarily for literary merit.

 

[AchtungBaby]

1. The Reach
2. The Man in the Black Suit
3. The Things They Left Behind
4. Graduation Afternoon
5. Batman and Robin Have An Altercation
6. That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French
7. A Death
8. The Last Rung On The Ladder
9. Graveyard Shift
10. Summer Thunder
11. The Monkey
12. Trucks
13. The Wedding Gig
14. Nona
15. The Reaper's Image
16. The Word Processor of the Gods
17. Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
18. Uncle Otto's Truck
19. The Woman in the Room
20. One For the Road

I chose a couple of these because they are fun and quintessential King and not necessarily for literary merit.

Good list. I love King’s short stories. I forgot to include The Word Processor of the Gods. D*mn.

 

[Doc Creed]

Good list. I love King’s short stories. I forgot to include The Word Processor of the Gods. D*mn.

I know what you mean. I wanted 'Strawberry Spring' and 'The Jaunt', it's impossible to stick to only twenty.

 

[Grant87]

Taking the lead from Doc Creed — what’s your top twenty short stories? The novellas don’t count.

1. The Last Rung on the Ladder
2. New York Times at Special Bargain Rates
3. Summer Thunder
4. The Raft
5. The Reach
6. Strawberry Spring
7. Batman and Robin Have an Altercation
8. Afterlife
9. Bad Little Kid
10. Ayana
11. The Man in the Black Suit
12. The Jaunt
13. The Little Green God of Agony
14. Harvey’s Dream
15. 1408
16. You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
17. Night Surf
18. One For the Road
19. The Dune
20. Autopsy Room Four

That was hard!

Quite a few from Bazaar on your list. Did you expect that going in? I really like Bazaar. Summer Thunder is such a great story. My favorite from that collection for sure.

I can't wait to read King's collections I haven't gotten to yet. Looking forward to coming up with my top 20 after I finish them.

 

[AchtungBaby]

Quite a few from Bazaar on your list. Did you expect that going in? I really like Bazaar. Summer Thunder is such a great story. My favorite from that collection for sure.

I can't wait to read King's collections I haven't gotten to yet. Looking forward to coming up with my top 20 after I finish them.

Yeah, I think Bazaar is my favorite King collection overall. Or maybe Just After Sunset.

 

[grin willard]

Tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!

The Reach would have to be #1. Probably the best thing he's put to paper. Jezus, I might need a week off to figure this one out! I LOVED The Reaper's Image. Although the ending softened it a bit. But so atmospheric. Loved Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. There wasn't much going on in Summer Thunder, but I still really liked it. I loved Beach World. The flip side of Bradbury's The Long Rain? Jerusalem's Lot was fantastic. Loved The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands, a companion to the Novella, Breathing Method. But really, gloves? Hated Bad Little Kid! Good writing, but I hated the kid! I remember really liking Strawberry Spring, but I can't remember it! Trucks & Night Surf were good.

 

[Doc Creed]

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands

How did I miss this one? It's in Skeleton Crew, right? I go back and forth between Night Shift and Skeleton Crew as my favorite story collection. I liked the mood he sets in this one, fraternal and convivial bonds and the elevated, time honored (even solemn) tradition of passing on stories.

 

[GNTLGNT]

 

[Mr Nobody]

So we're leaving out The Mist, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet (both of which would have been included in my top 5) and everything from Four Past Midnight and Full Dark, No Stars? That it?

After much deliberating over order and having picked out those that have stayed longest in the memory, here goes.

1) Word Processor of the Gods
2) All That You Love Will Be Carried Away
3) The End Of The Whole Mess
4) Mrs Todd's Shortcut
5) Battleground
6) Quitters, Inc.
7) The Jaunt
8) The Things They Left Behind
9) 1408
10) The Raft
11) The Ten O'Clock People
12) Night Surf
13) The Reach
14) You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band
15) The Little Sisters of Eluria (served as my gateway to The Dark Tower series)
16) I Am The Doorway
17) Graduation Afternoon
18) Beachworld
19) Jerusalem's Lot
20) Stationary Bike

 

[Doc Creed]

So we're leaving out The Mist, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet (

'The Mist' is a novella but 'The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet' is a short story.

 

[Mr Nobody]

'The Mist' is a novella but 'The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet' is a short story.

Hm. Wikipedia said it was a novella when I Googled it, which is why I didn't include it.
Anyway, TBotFB would be no.5, so everything shuffles down one and 'Stationary Bike' gets the boot.

 

[Doc Creed]

Hm. Wikipedia said it was a novella when I Googled it, which is why I didn't include it.
Anyway, TBotFB would be no.5, so everything shuffles down one and 'Stationary Bike' gets the boot.

Huh. I see where the magazine calls it a novella but I wouldn't consider it a novella (and it appears on this site under short stories) but magazines pay close attention to word count, so that could have something to do with it. Maybe it squeaks over the line by a few hundred words? Not sure. I don't own a copy of Skeleton Crew but I do recall it being rather short in comparison to say The Mist. I'll try to figure out the word count one of these days when I have time, just to appease my own curiosity. You could be right.

 

[grin willard]

How did I miss this one? It's in Skeleton Crew, right? I go back and forth between Night Shift and Skeleton Crew as my favorite story collection. I liked the mood he sets in this one, fraternal and convivial bonds and the elevated, time honored (even solemn) tradition of passing on stories.

I really wish SK had done more with The Club. With the motto, it's not the teller, it's the tale. And the butler who (apparently) does not age. Really interesting stuff. Wikipedia calls the device SK used in Breathing Method and The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands a nested narrative. A new term on me! It was in Skeleton Crew. Re-reading it, I realized I'd never finished The Mist! I wonder why? But I remedied That sit-che-ation. My current copy of Skeleton Crew is nice & swelled like it got caught in the rain a couple of times. It's in my locker at work. I bought it during the summer with a bunch of other books, and the girl at the counter looking at it said, "I can't charge you for this." I said, "No, it's fine, it's just $2.00." And she replied, "No. I can't charge you for this." Sweet girl!

 

[Doc Creed]

I really wish SK had done more with The Club. With the motto, it's not the teller, it's the tale. And the butler who (apparently) does not age. Really interesting stuff. Wikipedia calls the device SK used in Breathing Method and The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands a nested narrative. A new term on me! It was in Skeleton Crew. Re-reading it, I realized I'd never finished The Mist! I wonder why? But I remedied That sit-che-ation. My current copy of Skeleton Crew is nice & swelled like it got caught in the rain a couple of times. It's in my locker at work. I bought it during the summer with a bunch of other books, and the girl at the counter looking at it said, "I can't charge you for this." I said, "No, it's fine, it's just $2.00." And she replied, "No. I can't charge you for this." Sweet girl!

I've seen him use that device in Wolves of the Calla, too. It's nice to know now what it's called. He certainly could expand on that story...one of the characters in that Club says, "there are always more tales". King loves to tell stories within stories. I'm told he does this in Wind Through the Keyhole, too.
Is your copy the one with the monkey on the cover? I can picture it so clearly how you descibed it. I wrote a little anecdote somewhere on this board about different book smells and different textures.