I am on the search for a short story for a looming uni assignment. So I asked for recommendations on FaceBook and ended up with this must-read list.

Hills Like White Elephants – Hemingway

Kiss Kiss – Roald Dahl

The Labyrinth – Jorge Luis Borger

Twelve Red Herrings – Jeffrey Archer

Cowboy – Thomas McGuane

Fat Man in History – Peter Carey

A Perfect Day for Bananafish – JD Salinger

Anything written by Steinbeck

The Dying Gentleman – Tim Winton

The Persimmon Tree – Margaret Barnard

A&P – John Updike

If I loved you I would tell you this – Robin Black

I need to select one — just one — and write a critical essay on it.

I was taken with Robin Black’s book about love. The mystery of what might be revealed drew me in just by the title.

But I couldn’t find the book in my local bookshop and with a five-hour return flight to Adelaide next week I wanted to use the time on the plane to read, read, read.

So I checked out my own bookshelves.

There was Tim Winton, David Malouf, Helen Garner, Frank Moorhouse, Alice Munro, AS Byatt and Annie Proulx, Karen Hitchcock and my favourite default author, Raymond Carver. All deserving of a second read and critical analysis.

I was drawn to Malouf — and Garner. Malouf ‘s seductive story style always holds me but I spend too much of my reading time marvelling at the poetry of his prose. And Garner’s At the Morgue is a detailed and hard-hitting piece of literary non-fiction that gives me shivers every time I read it.

So how to decide.

Oh look there is another book on my shelf – Best Australian Stories 2006.

More choices.

More reading.

Oh goody.

(Thank you to Mark x 2, Meredith, Melissa, Jane, Lisa, Zena, Nadine, Victoria, Linda and Northern Rivers for your story suggestions.)

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