The Best Short Stories I Have Read #

These are some of the best short stories I have read. These have made me feel things I would not normally feel reading stories and think about things more deeply than I would otherwise, or maybe they were just a fun read. They are organized in terms of publication date.

2023 #

The Third Law of Magic
A story about art, and the difficulty of expression. Ongoing is an interesting dissection of the contrast of the artist (or perhaps an artist) between the interior - their thoughts, feelings, and ideals - and their exterior - their presentation and execution of their work.

2018 #

Seeing Ershadi
This story is incredible and confusing. I think one of the reasons I like it so much is because I can’t totally understand it. Overall, though, it speaks to the feeling of finding a piece of art at the perfect time in one’s life, and about reflecting upon that later.

2017 #

The Ihop Years
Anything written by David Sedaris is generally a fantastic read, this was no exception to that. It details his time in Chicago, when he was at the Art Institute of Chicago just up til when he moved to New York City. This is, of course, a humurous story and rather pleasant.

2015 #

A Dance to the Music of Time
I’m not totally sure how to describe this short story, except perhaps in that it is wonderful and excellent in full part. The story feels both familiar and distant - in ways that I feel and perhaps want to feel (or don’t want to feel?), I can’t say for sure.

1957 #

Profession
I’m not sure what to say about this, it’s just a really good science fiction story. I read it in, almost totally, one sitting, and it pretty much immediately captured me. Isaac Asimov is, of course, quite a fantastic writer, and this story does still feel really “modern” to some degree, at least in the way it reads to me.