Great Short Books: A Year of Reading—Briefly

[MsAmerica]

Since there are sometimes people posting saying they're trying to get back into reading, this might be of interest.

Great Short Books: A Year of Reading—Briefly
By Kenneth C. Davis
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Great-Short-Books/Kenneth-C-Davis/Great-Short-Books/9781982180058

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kenneth-c-davis/great-short-books/

My list would include:

A Month in the Country by JL Carr 112pp
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote 160pp
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner 102pp
Passing by Nella Larson 160pp
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 176 pp

Foster by Claire Keegan

A Christmas Carol is a fairly obvious choice but well worth reading.

Yes to Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Of Mice and Men
Jekyll and Hyde
Goodbye to Berlin

Any Claire Foster.
I love Hotel du Lac and a Month in the Country.

John Boyne’s elements series, Air, Earth, Water and Fire.

Orbital, the recent Booker prize winner.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

A Room With a View.

The Great Gatsby

Muriel Spark has written many short books. I just read The Driver's Seat.

And then after that I read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

Just ordered from the library because it has been talked about a lot on BookTok (yes - I know it's BookTok haha!) - The Stranger by Albert Camus, it's only 123 pages according to Goodreads, so thought I'd give it a whirl. I haven't listened to the reviews, I just kind of make a note of the books people mention, so no idea what it's about either :(

I would suggest Lessons From The Field, which is a book that teaches life lessons through the power of sport. It was written by an ex professional cricketer.

Short novels can sometimes be a more complex read than long novels so I'm not sure they are always the best thing for someone trying to get back into reading, I think you need something immersive rather than something short but hard work. That said here are some interesting short novels:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Very readable with an unusual narrator.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Completely bonkers and disturbing novel by the Nobel Prize winner.
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun. Frankfurt in the 1930s after the day Hitler comes to town.

Ooh, just got Orbital from the library!

It's nice when a past thread of mine gets revived, but I'm not sure why my attempt to bring a book to the forum's attention ignored, but is instead swamped by other suggestions.

I really enjoyed Orbital!

In line with the thread title. posters are recommending short books that they think are great.

ETA your OP is about short books getting people back into reading - how are recommendations of short books inconsistent with that?

Maybe those posting haven’t read the book you suggest but are contributing in the spirit of the thread by suggesting their own recommendations. How were you expecting this thread to go - people just meekly thanking you very much for your great recommendation and then leaving? A touch precious of you, perhaps!

Because most people on here don’t need to read a book telling them about enjoyable short books, because they can think up lots on their own?

I have enjoyed “books about books”
though I haven’t read the one in the OP. Howard’s End is on the Landing, Bookworm and especially Reading Lessons.

The older I get, the less concerned I am with reading lots of books. I now prefer to read slow and deep. I will happily spend two or three months on a classic like Middlemarch or Bleak House or A Dance to the Music of Time rather than zipping through The Great Gatsby or To the Lighthouse.