The Stand, by Stephen King. I couldn't put it down while I was reading it and couldn't forget it for weeks. I still think of it now and again

A story that's always stuck with me is a book I read in Middle School called "A Night in Moonbeam County". It's about these runaways that are riding the rails, and hop off in the woods outside of a town. They see a fire in the woods and walk towards it and meet all these hoboes that are swapping stories. There is one about a kid who steals the moon and hides it under a tree stump, and it makes the seasons stop changing. And another about a guy who can trap people's souls in his paintings. Each short story was cool on its own.

[SPOILER ALERT: (it's meant for grades 6-9, so I doubt you'd read it anyway)]

But when the boys wake in the morning, everyone is gone. As they trek back to the RR tracks, they come across the graves of all the people from the stories the hoboes were telling, implying that the 'hoboes' were actually the ghosts of the people from the stories. At the time, it freaked me the eff out.

I really enjoyed the story told by Patrick Suskind in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. I know it's been made into a movie, but I highly suggest the book. It's about a man who has an incredible sense of smell and who attempts to capture the perfect essence. It's kind of a gruesome story, but it really stuck with me. The author does such a good job in describing smells, something I would find incredibly hard to do. The ending of the story is something you will never forget. I don't want to give it away though, and I doubt I could do it justice in my own words.

As a kid I also enjoyed Roald Dahl's "The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar and Six more". It's seven short stories that have stuck with me since 5th grade.