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.
Just read Terry Pratchett or Larry Niven. Also Lois McMaster Bujold is a writer that will make you laugh and often start look at the world around you differently.
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?
I would recommend The Wheel of time, but be aware that its a very long book(series?). It contains 14 Books and totals at about 11k Sites. It absolutely takes quite a lot of time to fully read it, but its absolutely worth it. Its by far the best book ive read so far.
Lots of great recommendations here. I’d also add Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. Her Penric novels are quite fun, too.
Anything by Terry Pratchett (look for one of the “where to start” guides). Funny, a bit ridiculous, but always super intelligent with lots of good social commentary.
Ursula Le Guin has lots of bangers. Slow burning sci-fi with deep atmosphere and social philosophy. Any of her Hainish books are good for that. Earthsea series is beautiful. The Birthday Of The World is my favourite short stories book.
Neuromancer by William Gibson if you’re into cyberpunk.
UNSONG if you’re keen on religion-themed absurd fantasy. It’s amazing. Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman is also great on that front.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Fictional account of the dustbowl migration in the US. It will make you righteously angry, especially when you realise the same shit is still happening in other ways.
Pretty much anything in the “Known Space” series by Larry Niven (et al - there are works by some other authors in that space).
Cradle! Or better, the cradle series. It’s a sort of adventure story in a fantasy world.
“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.
The Navidson record is a movie though.
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.
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
Any early Alistair MacLean…
Guns of Navaronne
Where Eagles Dare
When Eight Bells Toll
Night Without End
Puppet on a String
Louis Lamour’s westerns are complete popcorn and fun to read
C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower books
When I was younger I binged a lot of Alistair MacLean. To continue the list with some of my other favourites:
The Satan Bug
The Golden Rendezvous
The Dark Crusader
The Last Frontier
Ice Station Zebra
Fair warning though: he’s quite formulaic and it is not recommended to finish one of his books then start another. Read a couple of books inbetween to give yourself a break.
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!
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.
In this same category is Cathedral of the sea by Ildefonso Falcones. It is a great book and one of my favorites! Not a one day read for sure.
Love love love these books.
Raymond Chandler’s novels, esp The Lady in the Lake
The Pirx the Pilot stories, 8 in 2 volumes
Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key
2nd the Hitchhiker’s Guide and they’re easy to rejoin
A A Fair’s novels are short and have odd western us lore in them, one has a great way to bet in Vegas, others name spots in Mexico, they were Gardner’s fun books that he liked to write more than other series.
The Handmaid’s Tale
We
Nightfall
The Terminal Experiment
