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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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?
The Heart Shaped Box
NOS4A2
Between Two Fires
The Troop
The Princess Bride
Edit: Just realized you’re looking for something to finish in a day, my bad. Have your read any Sherlock Holmes? They’re entertaining and you can get through quite a few stories in a day.
The Broken Earth series, Enders game series (the first 5 books about Ender), American Gods, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and the follow up A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, The Kingkiller Chronicle (we’ve been waiting 10+ yrs for the final book 3, some folks are pretty irked atp, but it will be ok). If you want YA beach reading, anything by Seanan McGuire / Mira Grant for easy fun books about fairies, cryptids, and zombies.
“Short enough to finish in a day” seems pretty tough for me, but maybe I read slowly.
Short story books are good for casual reading in short sessions. Robot Dreams by Asimov, or Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut. I used to carry each of those around and read a short story while waiting at a restaurant or at the DMV or whatever.
I really liked Altered Carbon. Approachable sci fi with drugs, violence, sex, politics, and of course high tech ideas like flying cars, AI hotels, digital consciousness.
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.
Rn I’m currently rereading The Inheritance Cycle, it’s fantasy, but it goes very in depth, there are your different races, elves, “orcs”, dwarves, you got dragons, there are different languages that the author made, its very good. Of course I might be biased since I’m rereading it rn lmao
Edit: I did not read the bit about reading it in a day. I guess you could if you read fast
“Best” often is a literary work that can be slow to read and/or very long. You want stuff that is short and quick, which is fine, I read a lot of fanfiction for that purpose. But I’m going to recommend Pohl and Kornbluth’s “The Space Merchants” and their other short novels from that era (1950s). Their cynicism is absolutely prescient. The Space Merchants is about a world run by advertising agencies. A quick read while hard hitting.
Recently, I finished Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(Asimov_novel) It’s a collection of a few stories, so you can read it one by one.
Now is the perfect time for you to read “The end of Eternity”, I’m not going to spoil it, just go.
I’ll check them. Thank you very much.
The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear
It’s not a short book as OP requested. However the episodic nature fits his requirements. The genre is comedic fantasy.
Love that book
The End of Eternity (Asimov) might be short enough for you, and has some interesting ideas about the implications of time travel.
The Martian and Project Hail Mary are some of the best sci-fi-of-tomorrow books I have ever read. Maybe not a single day, but neither are overly long.
I read Andy Weir’s The Martian in a single sitting. Book really grabbed me by the face.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Cradle! Or better, the cradle series. It’s a sort of adventure story in a fantasy world.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide, you likely won’t be able to finish each of the 5 books in the trilogy in a day but it’s something you can read a hundred times and find a new witty joke somewhere, much like all the Discworld novels.
The Expanse is another that you could burn through a book a day but wow it’s a hell of a story and worth taking your time on each character’s perspective, Outlander is also a good one for the same reasons but those are 1k pagers
The Hitchhiker’s Guide, you likely won’t be able to finish each of the 5 books in the trilogy in a day but it’s something you can read a hundred times and find a new witty joke somewhere
After which you can listen to the radio show, watch the TV show, play the text adventure and maybe watch the movie depending on how much more you can take :-)
