A few weeks ago Jesse posted my list of Best Free Audiobooks. I got a great response for this post, so I thought I’d do another one with my favorite free short stories that I’ve reviewed at Free Listens. Of course such lists are inherently silly, as they depend upon the listmaker’s tastes, current mood, memory, and a host of other little factors that have nothing to do with the quality of the story. So, if you’d rather, here’s a list of 10 really darn good stories (but maybe not the best):
- “The Lottery” – Shirley Jackson
- “A Rose for Emily” – William Faulkner
- “The Gospel According to Mark” – Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Gift of the Magi” – O. Henry
- “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov
- “Bullet in the Brain” – Tobias Wolff
- “A Sound of Thunder” – Ray Bradbury
- “The Monkey’s Paw” – W.W. Jacobs
- “The Open Window” – Saki
- “The Yellow Wallpaper” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Hope you enjoy these!
Posted by Seth
I would not say such Lists are Silly! Even if the Majority do have Crap written all over them. You just hope the author has put some thought into them before hanging it out there.
Yes Tastes vary. But it’s certainly not Futile to state that one who would place say The Godfather as a Top Ten Film should be Universally recognized as a Valid argument and one that would place Transformers 2 in the Top Ten should be considered a Moron!
It’s Obvious that Sturgeons Law is Universal and not contained to SF.
I would say that 90% is Crap and 5% more only being OK.
So with such a low percentage of Goods out there. The need for someone who can suggest something worth using(and not wasting) your time over becomes Someone Very Important to some!
JOEY 5 cENTS
P.S
Very Good Free Fiction(Genre work)
THe Squirrel Cage by Thomas M. Disch from the Mindwebs series(quality is almost always pretty rough) But the Paranoia is Top Notch!
A real Winner in Ted Chiang’s “Understand” from the BBC
Graves by Joe Haldeman from Starship Sofa is a Goody as well as Jeff Vandermeer’s Shark God vs Octopus God(just plain enjoyable)