I started reading last year, mostly productivity stuff, but now I’m really looking to jump into fiction to unwind after a long week of uni, studying, and work. I need something to help me relax during the weekends without feeling like I’m working.
I’d love some recommendations for books that are short enough to finish in a day but still hit hard and are totally worth it. No specific genre preferences right now. I’m open to whatever. Looking forward to seeing what you guys suggest. Thank you very much in advance.
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I don’t know…I read a lot of good books often.
I guess you could say my options are booked.
Short book that hit hard:
- Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
- Never let me go, Kazuro Ishiguro
- The last unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
- 1984, George Orwell
- Prince of Thieves, Chuck Hogan
Never Let Me Go is the most “not for me” book I’ve ever read. I can see why people love it. And I respect what it’s doing. I just don’t want to play a long.
Nice, I like it very much when one can separate between personal fit and quality! :-)
For me the whole point of the book is to accept the story, while your own sense/mind tells you to not play along, which made me reflect about how much - dare I say everyone of us - plays along everyday… Besides this, I simply like Ishiguros writing style (non native English speaker here, so wonder what a native would think about it.)
Would love to get a list of books from you that you respect and like (or respect and don’t like ;-)).
The Lathe of Heaven by LeGuin is pretty short, and great
Everything by LeGuin is fantastic. The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Fisherman of the Inland Sea. So many beautiful worlds and stories.
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It’s a super generic choice, but Catch-22 (if you’re looking for something less generic, Heller also wrote the more obscure Something Happened that focuses his satirical prowess on 1960s family life, but that’s a longer book). It’s just so effortlessly funny.
i tried to read this more than once to figure out what the hype is, and it never made me care what happens next. every page to the halfway point is a boring slog for me-- what am i missing? i consider vonnegut’s cat’s cradle to be good satire. yossarian just seems like a whiny bitch to me, the type of person i go out of my way to avoid irl
Yossarian is kind of a whiny bitch, but it’s because he’s trying to cover up his exhaustion and terror with anything that will keep him out of harm’s way. What I liked about it was all of the silly jokes that come back to hit hard in the second half of the book.
i intend to give it one more try–it wouldn’t be the first book that took multiple attempts for me to start liking
A book that stuck with me for a long time was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It was a fairly quick read too, I’m a slow reader so definitely longer than a day but I think I read it over a short vacation.
I have two fantastic recommendations that are pretty short reads.
Enders Game is fantastic Sci fi and quite cut throat. Great Story. Far better than the marginal movie that came out based on it.
The Martian. Sci fi, but more realistic and the author must have researched the hell out of things to put this book together. The movie they made was actually pretty good, but the book outshines it by leaps and bounds. The internal monolog of the main character is outstanding in the book and it just can’t happen through the movie.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big fan of Enders Game. The movie, though, was absolutely devastating. It’s the only time I left a cinema angry.
Yeah. They really blew that one. Still not as bad as live action DragonBall or ATLA, though.
Oh hey, I’m reading The Martian right now! Also loved Project Hail Mary by the same author, Andy Weir. It’s a bit more fantastical and just a great read.
I haven’t read Hail Mary yet, but I’ll have to check it out now. How far along with you on the Martian? You enjoying it?
Not the one you’re asking, but I’ve read both The Martian and Project Hail Mary. You absolutely gotta try PHM if you liked the martian. They’re both incredible books, but if I had to rank them, it’d be real close, but Hail Mary would come out on top.
Thanks!
Project Hail Mary used to come up on r/books from time to time and was polarizing. Lots of folks loved it. Lots thought it wasn’t good.
If you loved the Martian I think you’ll like PHM. I did.
I’m waist deep in The Dresden Files right now (just started Turn Coat, book 11 of like 20 and counting) and it very quickly became one of my favorite series I’ve ever read. Jim Butcher has woven a web of a story where every little detail is a foreshadow that often won’t pay off until two books later, it’s incredible.
Prior to this I read The Expanse and that one also comes highly recommended. It’s one of the most believable space operas I’ve ever read. I also hear the TV show is good, no idea, never watched it.
The Expanse TV show is superb. I’m halfway through the books now, and in some ways the TV show is much better, in other ways the books are better.
There’s enough subtlety and complexity that I’ve watched the entire series twice, and I wouldn’t be averse to watching it again.
The books will likely please you for one reason alone. The Laconia story line that the show didn’t make it to.
Also anybody that loves The Expanse should check out the Bobiverse.
Best? Hard to say. But favorite?
Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick. It’s quite short, like many of his books, and you could absolutely knock it out in a day.
The Culture by Ian M. Banks. It’s a little difficult to approach, but an incredible exploration of Sci-Fi, humanity, AI, and life in general. Unlike a lot of other great Sci-Fi (like The Expanse, which I also highly recommend) it’s gritty, but overall The Culture is a hopeful and optimistic take on the progress of humanity and technology.
The best books are The Player of Games, Look to Windward, and Excession.
Depending on how you’re feeling, I think you can skip The State of the Art, Matter, and Inversions, though they’re worth an eventual read. They’re just less connected to the main Culture story.
It’s a series that truly changed me and my perspective on life.
Whenever anyone asks me what fictional universe I want to live in, I say the Culture universe. Hands down the best sci-fi universe to live in as a regular humanoid. It’s a post-scarcity galactic paradise where if I ever get bored, I can plug into a Matrix-style simulation of any other fictional universe that’s 100% real to my senses. Or I’ll take any of a number of drugs that a gland in my brain can generate at will for shiggles. The possibilities are limitless.
Big disagree on the best - Use of Weapons, Surface Detail and Consider Phlebas are the favorites of my partner and me.
Not that the 3 listed are bad just that I like my 3 more :)
I mean, fair. All great books!
I honestly think that difference in opinion speaks highly of Banks as an author - the books speak to us differently and he wrote diverse enough stories that they capture each person separately.
Great point! They do vary wildly by style and subject matter, while all being masterful IMHO. Incredible talent.
The Handmaid’s Tale
We
Nightfall
The Terminal Experiment
A couple of my favorite books are probably longer than a day’s read:
• Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut (319p)
• The Watermelon King - Daniel Wallace (240p)Basically most Terry Pratchett books really. Some will take more than a day, but it’s like a mix of Lord of the Rings and Monty Python. Whimsical and silly with some good moments that make you think.
The discworld collection is currently on humble bundle for cheap if you have an e-reader.
Can you provide a link? Searching for Terry Pratchett or Discworld doesn’t give me any results.
Thanks. But it says unavailable in my area. 😕
The bundle or the claim website? You might be able to get around it with a VPN.
Oh thanks for the heads up!
Blood Meridian is critically acclaimed and you could read it in a day. I only got around to reading it last winter despite my “litbro” friends recommending it for years. It’s very violent but the prose style is really unique and original. The plot is kind of Moby Dick-esque where it examines mankind’s place in nature (mixed with a fair amount of Heart of Darkness).
Actually Heart of Darkness is extremely worth reading and it is probably less of an ordeal. Maybe start with that if you haven’t read it. Conrad spoke like 5 languages and English was the ~3rd he learned so he has a very interesting prose style.
