Good Books That Aren't Reaaaaally Long

[Seanzie]

I'm looking for good books that aren't extremely long. I just read David Copperfield, and I feel honestly exhausted, although it is a GREAT book. I don't dislike reading long works, but they tire me, haha.

In terms of length, I'm talking Catcher in the Rye style.

[Dori]

How short a book are you looking for? I can recommend several novels that are less than 150 pages (perhaps more aptly called novellas). Tolstoy's novellas are excellent, namely The Kreutzer Sonata and Hadji Murad (of those that I've read). Voltaire's Candide is also really short and really good. You might also try Dostoevsky's epistolary novel Poor Folk, although I think this is around 200 pages. I strongly recommend Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (~120 pages).

[Seanzie]

Well, about 200 pages is good. Anywhere from 150-250 is really what I'm talking about.

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll be sure to look into them.

[papayahed]

I recommend Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, it's fun, and it's short.

[livelaughlove]

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

[ClickForth]

okokok

[livelaughlove]

Also, the Scarlet Letter is good and a classic must-read... I'm pretty sure it's within 150-200 pages.

[Dori]

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

:lol: I was going to recommend that, but I decided against it for some reason.

[iloveoscar]

I recommend Trainsong by Jan Keroauc (see the quote below), its about 200 pages but it goes by fast. There's always Oscar Wilde plays, short and sweet. I highly recommend The Importance of Being Earnest. I just finished reading it and it was fabulous. Also, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is very good. I don't remember exactly how long it is but it only took about a week to read. Hope that helps!

[novelsryou]

I just finished The Old Man And The Sea. Shhhhhhhh, at work. :D

[amanda_isabel]

i just finished Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. short, subtle, and deeply evocative :)

Across Time, by Nina Beaumont, is good too

Tears of Jade, by Leigh Riker

The Secret Life of a Schoolgirl, by Rosemary Kingsland

[Orpheus]

I second Voltaire's Candide

Also:

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Anything from Kurt Vonegut

Lord of the Flies - Golding

Animal Farm/1984 - Orwell

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Gulliver's Travels - Swift

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol

All of these books are rather short.

[aeroport]

The Aspern Papers and The Beast in the Jungle - Henry James
The Ghost Writer - Philip Roth
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

[HotKarl]

Here's what I would recommend:

Katherine Anne Porter: Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Nathanael West: Miss Lonelyhearts
Carson McCullers: Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Jerzy Kosinski: Being There
John Hawkes: The Lime Twig
Ron Arias: The Road to Tamazunchale
Eudora Welty: The Robber Bridegroom
James Purdy: In a Shallow Grave

Most of these are novellas, and only a couple of them exceed a hundred pages. All great reads though.

[Shea]

I'd also add Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

[Schokokeks]

To those mentioned above I'd like to add The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

In general, how about trying some plays ? They tend to be short certainly than David Copperfield and more fast-paced, too ;).
How about something by Willy Shakespeare, surely you can't go wrong there !
For the more modern ones, I've recently enjoyed Eugene O'Neill, Sean O'Casey and Tennessee Williams.
Furthermore, plays have the advantage that the reading might climax in a visit to the local theatre ;).

[Nossa]

Silas Marner by George Eliot..A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving (at least I don't think it's long)...maybe you can also try The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom..it's more of a novella actually.

[pussnboots]

The Five People You Meet in Heaven was good. You might also want to try the following:
Dinner with A Perfect Stranger by David Gregory - about a man who excepts an invitation to dinner with Jesus of Nazareth. 100 pages

For One More Day by Mitch Albom - 197 pages

[Seanzie]

Wow, guys! Thanks for the multitude of suggestions! I'll try to see to it that I try to get my hands on more than a few of those.

[johann cruyff]

How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Tolstoy is a brilliant read.

Also,Steppenwolf(although it may be slightly over 200 pages) by Hesse.

[stlukesguild]

Italo Calvino's Baron in the Trees or Invisible Cities... both quite marvelous
Goethe's- Sorrows of Young Werther
Thomas Mann- Death in Venice
Theophile Gautier- Mlle de Maupin
Marguerite Duras- The Lover
Gonzago Torrente Ballester- The King Amaz'd
Jonathan Swift- Gulliver's Travels
Samuel Johnson- Rasselas
Daniel DeFoe- A Journal of the Plague Year
Thomas DeQuicy- Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Robert Louis Stevenson- The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde
John Buchan- The Thirty-Nine Steps
C.K. Chesterton- The Man who was Thursday
George Eliot- Silas Marner
Joseph Conrad- The Beast in the Jungle
H.G. Wells- almost anything
Yoel Hoffmann- Katschen & The Book of Joseph

The possibilities abound!

[JBI]

Just look up novella. Also Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin, though that is in verse.

[Anna Seis]

Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo would be a great choice.

[bouquin]

You might want to try these books as well :
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Alexander's Bridge - Willa Cather