20 Top Short Story Collections

Shakespeare once wrote "brevity is the soul of wit." Brevity is also the soul of the short story, which only has a small amount of space to resonate with a reader. We took a look at these mini but mighty powerhouses on Goodreads to bring you the best of the best. Don't forget to add your favorites to your Want to Read shelf.

For this round-up, we're defining short story collections as a series of short stories written by a single author. From there, we chose collections that have been added to Goodreads members' shelves more than 50,000 times and earned at least a four-star rating.

This list is by no means exhaustive, however. So please be sure to share your own recommendations in the comments.