“The Arabian Nights”. It is a collection of folk tales from Arabia and Persia. The initial frame of the stories consists of Scheherazade telling the tales to her murderous husband in order to stay alive. Most editions contain at least a thousand of these tales.

“Very Good Jeeves”(1930)P.G.Wodehouse. The book is a collection of short stories relating the comic antics of the rich yet foolish master Bertie Wooster and his “gentleman’s gentleman” Jeeves. Their hilarious escapades make this book one of the most memorable of all times.

“Grimm’s’ Fairy Tales”(1825)Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The two brothers in this collection present a series of German folklore and folk tales. These stories were told to them by peasants, aristocrats and the people from the middle-class, recounting old stories they remembered.

“Twice told tales”(1873)Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tone of the author throughout all the stories in this collection is singular and plaintive yet in accordance to the themes. It includes such stories as “The Wedding Knell” and “The Vision of the Fountain”.

“Dubliners”(1914)James Joyce. This collection of fifteen stories is a realistic depiction of the Irish middle-class in the twentieth century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism had reached new heights.

“Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”(1840)Edgar Allen Poe. This is a collection of the author’s previously published short stories, dealing with satires and psychological tales. These include “Morella” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”

“The Prussian Officer and other Short Stories”(1914)D.H.Lawrence. This is one of the best collections of the writer’s short stories which include such celebrated works like “The Odor of Chrysanthemums”, “The White Stocking” and “The Shades of Spring”.

“Chicken Soup for the Soul”(1993)compiled by Jack Canfield and Mark V Hansen. The collection contains a hundred and one of the most inspirational stories and essays that you may come across. Most relate real life stories and motivations for hope  that touch every reader’s heart.

“To Cut a Long Story Short”(2000)Jeffery Archer. The master of story telling here offers a series of short stories which have the reader guessing till the end. It includes stories of all kinds, legal thrillers to intellectual thinking stories, but with the trademark twist in the tale.

“The Veteran”(2001)Frederick Forsyth. The book includes only five short stories, which are all different from each other. Like his other tales, they will have the reader gasping even after the stories end.