Can anyome suggest any good short stories I can read up on? I'm going to write one myself but I need to get the feel of how to write one first. Any additional tips on writing would also be appreciated. :D

Maps in a Mirror is a collection by Orson Scott Card which includes my favorite short of all time: Ender's Game.

Bradbury Stories is another collection by a very different person (Ray Bradbury of course).

Burning Chrome by Gibson, if you like cyberpunk.

Depends on who or what you're writing for. Is it something for school or college or publishing? 2 rules I live by for writing are:

So what - why should I care about your story? Give me (the audience) a reason to bother reading it. I try to start a story in the middle of something, giving just enough hints for the reader to want to find out more.

Who cares - who's this aimed at? Will your dog care anything for a story about a computer gone crazy? Probably not, aside from the fact he can't read. ;)

Some authors - Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mercedes Lackey.

Depends on which subject you are interested in... My favourite short story writter is Anton Tchekov. Ivan Bunin is also good, but his are really short ones.

It's for school. I have to do a major work. I've decided to do either a critical essay or a short story. I can't make up my mind yet so I'm just doing a little research first.

"The Dead" by James Joyce. It may be the best short story ever written. It is part of a larger collection: _Dubliners_.

I personally enjoy Philip K. Dick's (of Bladerunner fame) stories. Second Variety is a good read for some post apocalyptic action ^^

There is also Poe by the way...

"For A Breath I Tarry" by Roger Zelazny--it's in Last Defender of Camelot--one of the best anthologies (imho) in my collection.

The "Year's Best SF" and "Year's Best Fantasy" anthologies feature many good works by new and established authors.

If you like H P Lovecraft, may I suggest "The Dunwich Horror" and "At the Mountains of Madness".

'The Island of Doctor Death: and other stories' by Gene Wolfe

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

How about "I, Robot" or "The Complete Robot" by Isaac Asimov.