Classic science fiction: "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov
Modern science fiction: "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson
Modern horror: "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker
Classic horror: "The Call of Cthulhu"
Literary: "A&P" by John Updike

Any of the Maeve Brennan - Rose Garden short stories.

Any of Joe Lansdale's short stories. If I had to pick just one I would probably pick My Dead Dog Bobby.

The Lady, Or The Tiger by Frank Stockton

I remember this one from Grammar School. It made an impression on me then, and always used the analogy when discussing "fate."

3 here...

New Rose Hotel - William Gibson;
Harrison Bergeron (sp?) - Kurt Vonnegut;
The Carcinoma Angels - Norman Spinrad.

Hey I was looking to read some good short stories and I found a few of the ones people listed online, thought I'd post the links.

The Dead, James Joyce
http://www.readprint.com/work-879/James-Joyce

The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe
http://www.readprint.com/work-1286/Edgar-Allan-Poe

To Build A Fire, Jack London
http://www.readprint.com/work-1063/Jack-London

The Lady or The Tiger, John Stockton
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/tiger.html

The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html

The Monkey's Paw, W.W. Jacobs
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/paw.html


Also does anyone know a good short fantasy or horror stories? Any available online?

thanks-

The Yattering and Jack from Clive Barker's Books of Blood.

Well, I know I already posted a list, but as I said, it depends on my mood. Some other great stories (guess I'm in more of a scifi mood lately):

"Bloodchild"-- Octavia Butler
"Sticks"-- Karl Edward Wagner (I don't know why, but this story actually scared me, which doesn't happen often)
"The Persistance of Vision"--John Varley (longish)
"Brazo de Dios"--Elizabeth Massie
"At the Rialto"--Connie Willis
"The House on Cemetery Street"--Cherry Wilder
"Green is the Color"--John M. Ford (pretty long, so probably a novella or novelette)
"Foster, Your Dead"--PKD (preachy, but it always gets to me anyway)
"Evening Primrose"--John Collier

And those who have ever had to either grade papers or read a slushpile might appreciate "One Thousand Words on Why You Should Not Talk During a Fire Drill" by Mark Halliday.

Silent Snow, Secret Snow by Conrad Aiken

I second or third A Sound of Thunder. Just look at how he wrote how it would be to travel back in time.

"Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious easts, moons eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything cupping one in another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats, all and everything returning to the fresh death, the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning. A touch of a hand might do it, the merest touch of a hand."

So awesome.

I read a really cool short story by H.P. Lovecraft about a man lost in a dark underground cavern where he encounters what seem like albino monsters but they're not...

That was good story with very cool surprise ending. "Books of Blood" is great.

I found stories by H.G. Wells online. http://emotionalliteracyeducation.co...ne/fmitm10.htm

i have always been partial to the billiard ball by asimov. if you are into dense, almost impenetrable fiction, try the short stories of david foster wallace.

Tell Tale Heart & the Monkey's Paw are excellent.

My favorite though is Cain Rose Up by Stephen King and can be found in Skeleton Crew.

Glad ta see the love for Ray Bradbury! I've passed so many copies of "The Illustrated Man" to fam and friends and have turned a lot of people on to the man.

My fav is "On the Other Foot" by Ray Bradbury.

"Earthman Bearing" Gifts is my number one with the Luck of Ignatz a close second, All Poe is at the top of my list. I just listened last week to most of his works read by Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone, SUPER. I commute an hour so I do a lot of audio books. Tried reading while driving but it diddn't work out, just Kidding!! Actually when read correctly with proper diction I think listening to Poe is better. Try The Bells, when read correctly you can hear bells.

Looks like this is another thread I missed before, but I like the idea. I'll show some love for a couple of my favorite short story writers: Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison.

Sturgeon, "The Professor's Teddy Bear" -- A young boy (who grows up to be a professor) has a nightmarish relationship with an evil teddy bear.

Ellison, "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" -- A supercomputer physically and psychologically torments the last remaining humans after destroying the world.

Ellison, "The Death Bird" -- An experimental (but accessible) story dealing with death, and the truth behind the motives of God and the Devil.

Ellison, "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World" -- a collaborative sequel to Robert Bloch's "A Toy For Juliette", Jack the Ripper struggles in the far future after being summoned.

I'm a pretty big fan of Poe as well. "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat," "The Purloined Letter," and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are my favorites.

The Porcelein Salamander by Orson Scott Card - Crippled girl receives a magical Porcelein Salamander from her father. Phenomenal fairytale.

Unaccompanied Sonata by Orson Scott Card - Prodigy is raised in complete musical from birth to be the next Beethoven... and then he hears some Beethoven. Really cool story about the beauty and function of music/art and also everyone's place in the world.

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Ellison - An amazing vision of a special kind of hell.

Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Eldiss(?) - Basis for the movie A.I.

The first ones that came to mind were

"The Ransom of Red Chief" O Henry
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C Clarke

Other ones before I opened the thread were

"Sticks" by Karl Edward Wagner
"The Killers" by Ernest Hemmingway
"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant

After I opened the thread, I thought of many others.

Many of my favorites have already been mentioned, but here are some more:

The Catbird Seat, by James Thurber

Pollock and the Porroh Man, by H. G. Wells

The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman

The Colour from Space, by H. P. Lovecraft.
(I read this one when I was 14, and it gave me such a case of the creeps, I couldn't sleep until I had removed the book from the room.)

The Seven Geases, By Clark Ashton Smith
(really, I like all of the tales of Hyperborea)

Love of Life by Jack London

Mark Twain's "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg".

"Jeffty is Five" - Harlan Ellison