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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If you’re into short stories the Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury is a good one.
And while I didn’t read much Issac Asimov myself my wife, who loves reading but dislikes sci-fi, read one of his books (Foundation) in a day and said he’s an excellent writer.
The bible 😂
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.
Cryptonomicon. It’s not really a short book, but it’s easily digestible as it has clear divisions where it is suitable to take a break.
The way the WW2 plot and the 90’s-plot intertwine is so much fun to read, especially since the 90’s characters are descendants of the ww2 characters.
And of course GEB Kavistik would grow up to be a pretentious cunt…
I disagree, I think Cryptonomicon is a very heavy book, might be too much for someone just starting, I’ve been slowly reading it for months, but I end up getting tired of it and reading something else to rest from it before going back and end up forgetting half of the characters and what they were doing.
The End of Eternity (Asimov) might be short enough for you, and has some interesting ideas about the implications of time travel.
The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal. The first book is called The Calculating Stars. Basically, an alternate history where (spoiler for the opening chapter) ::: spoiler spoiler a meteor wipes out the east coast and kick-starts climate change, causing the Space Age to start 10 years early. ::: It follows a Jewish computer (a woman who literally runs calculations for NASA, as seen in Hidden Figures) who wants to become an astronaut, and her struggles with the racism and misogyny of the 1950s.
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.
Catch 22 Tom Jones Good Omens Double Whammy (Carl Hiassen)
Catch 22 is just about the funniest thing I’ve ever read. I don’t think you’ll finish it in a day, but it’s amazing.
I have an ambitious offering i dont think anyone else will suggest.
ambitious but you also want something you can read a day at a time. Books are fairly small.
My favourite BIG STOMPY ROBOTS but in chronological order.
Battletech Novels.
Finish in a day isn’t a great requirement to put alongside “best ever”, as others have already covered. That aside, check out The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. You’ll be surprised by how fun it is to learn about medieval technology development and stone cathedral building techniques when it’s all wrapped up in a gripping narrative.
Love love love these books.
The Martian by Andy Weir is a book you could finish in a day. I could recommend a ton of books that I can read in a day but not sure how long they take you. How pages do you read a day OP?
Recommend high quality short stories. Edgar Allen Poe has a collection that is some of the most thrilling, mysterious and fun, imaginative, adventurous, grotesque and other depending on the story. https://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Allan-Poe-Complete-Collection/dp/1453643141
Robert Louis Stevenson was also a fantastic writer of short stories.https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Short-Stories-Robert-Stevenson/dp/030680882X
I like short stories sometimes as I can’t commit to a larger read.
I reccomend hopping on [email protected]
Others may have mentioned it (happy to see Terry Pratchett getting a lot of love), but would definitely recommend anything by Vonnegut! Love his writing style and his approaches to humor and world building. Slaughterhouse Five is a great one, as is Sirens of Titan.
Also, not certain how well they hold up, but I really enjoyed the Redwall series back in the day! I was much younger at the time, though.
“The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” is a hell of read, as well as “The Navidson Record”.
But “The Necronomicon” is my favorite fictional book, I think.
