short stories
All of these stories deeply affected me. I know that because I find myself coming back to them years later, and when I read them again, I find that the way they affect me has changed in some way. I can't fully appreciate a story unless I read it in physical form (preferably a hardcover book) so, where appropriate, I've linked to the book in which I read them (rather than the online version, which for many of them you can find with a simple Google search).
“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges (in Labyrinths). Written in haunting prose, Borges creates a fascinating thought experiment. The Library can be a lot of things, but to me, it's a search for meaning. (It also makes an appearance in Christopher Nolan's movie Interstellar.)
“The Circular Ruins” by Jorge Luis Borges (in Labyrinths). There's a surprise so I won't say much, but I have vivid images of fire.
“The Lady with a Dog” by Anton Chekhov (in Stories of Anton Chekhov). I've never read anything that made feelings so piercingly real.
“The Sentinel” by Arthur C. Clarke. This is a great story in it's own right, but it's also famous for inspiring the collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke that led to the creation of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“The Body” by Stephen King (in Four Past Midnight). Childhood friendship, summer, sadness. You might know this story from the 1980s movie Stand by Me.
“The Word” by Vladimir Nabokov. I remember distinctly when I first read this story. It was December 2005, and I had picked up The New Yorker for flight reading. I sat down in my window seat, picked a random story, and went on a breathtaking, magical journey. Only after I finished did I see that the author was Vladimir Nabokov.
“All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury (in The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction). This is a very short story that contains an amazing dance of words to create a vivid world and stark feelings.
“Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu (in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories). This book introduced me to a beautiful Japanese concept, mono no aware. Roughly, it means: the gentle sadness associated with the understanding that everything is impermanent.
“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories). This story was the first work of fiction to win all three of science fiction's major awards: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award. It's a beautiful story about a boy's relationship with his mother and her magical creations. The short story collection has other amazingly good stories: "The Waves" and "Good Hunting," among others.
“Taking Care of God” by Liu Cixin (in Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation). Equal parts wit and sadness.
“The Wages of Humanity” by Liu Cixin. The story begins at a fast pace and paints a future world that hold a startling, haunting implication for the world we live in today.
“Story of Your Life” and “Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang. “Story of Your Life” was made into a movie titled The Arrival, and while the movie is good, the cliche is true in this case—the short story is better. Ted Chiang’s stories are incredibly rich, descriptive, unique, and satisfying.
Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin. A collection of short stories by Liu Cixin.