# Recommend me some SHORT novels. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2016, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071 "2016-01-24T07:22:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/21 "2016-01-24T18:27:04Z")
_Einstein’s Dreams_. It’s a series of vignettes dreamed up by a fictionalized young Albert Einstein about how time might function in different universes. Beautifully written and strangely sad. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/22 "2016-01-24T20:42:55Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Practically any suspense novel by Dick Francis is very good and about two hundred pages. I often read one in a single afternoon. Takes about 5 hours. He’s an easy and fast read. High five! I love that dude (well, I say ‘dude’ - I suspect the theories about Mary Francis actually being pretty much co-writer are probably true. The quality of female characters is waaay above what I’d normally expect out of standard thriller novels of the era). ‘Bonecrack’ and ‘Reflex’ are my favourites. On the SF line… Ursula LeGuin - _The Lathe of Heaven_ - great classic SF on the science fiction/fantasy borderline Connie Willis - very prolific writer of all lengths of SF from doorstops to short stories, but including maybe as much as a dozen good novellas of about 100 - 200 pages, of which one of my favourites is _All Seated on the Ground_ Bob Shaw - Good old fashioned SF of Golden-Era-ish vintage. _Other Days, Other Eyes_ (about 150 pages) is a minor classic, and my former neighborhood SF emporium, the Slow Glass Bookstore was named after it - I don’t think any of his books get very much over the 200 page limit ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/23 "2016-01-24T21:10:16Z")
Loads of great recommendations here guys. Thanks very much! ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/24 "2016-01-24T21:13:59Z")
_Annihilation_ by Jeff VanderMeer It’s the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy. Unfortunately, the last two don’t meet your primary criteria as they are around 350 pages each. Still Annihilation is a great book and can be read as a stand-alone. ---
**Author:** ![psikeyhackr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@psikeyhackr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psikeyhackr)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/25 "2016-01-24T21:16:30Z")
Black Man’s Burden, by Dallas McCord Reynolds [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32390/32390-h/32390-h.htm](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32390/32390-h/32390-h.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/26 "2016-01-24T22:50:04Z")
_Hell, Said the Duchess_ by Michael Arlen. One of the damnedest books I’ve ever come across. _The Circus of Doctor Lao_ by Charles Finney. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/27 "2016-01-24T22:52:20Z")
And seconding **Boyo Jim** on the Richard Stark novels. Teach ya to do crimes, they will! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/28 "2016-01-24T23:18:53Z")
Steinbok’s _Cup of Gold_ is a good one. And _A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_, IIRC, is pretty short, but intense. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/29 "2016-01-24T23:31:58Z")
The Westing Game A novel marketed to kids, but which I rank as one of my favorite books. It’s amazing. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/30 "2016-01-24T23:47:15Z")
Harlan Ellison writes (well, wrote) shorter stuff, if you haven’t already checked him out. I think in fact he’s just come out with something new. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/31 "2016-01-24T23:54:34Z")
_The Spinning Heart_ by Donal Ryan. And I second _Einstein’s Dreams_ (I need to reread it now) and _The Westing Game_. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/32 "2016-01-25T02:08:56Z")
> [@4d3fect](#): > > Harlan Ellison writes (well, wrote) shorter stuff, if you haven’t already checked him out. I think in fact he’s just come out with something new. I think he writes (Has he written anything since his stroke?) short stories almost exclusively; his longest piece, _I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,_ is just under 170 pages. He may have written some longer stories, though. Jim Thompson’s stuff usually weighs in just under or over 200 pages. He writes very tight crime novels like _The Grifters._ ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/33 "2016-01-25T02:57:22Z")
_Damnation Alley_ by Roger Zelazny. A very mediocre movie starring Jan Michael Vincent had the same title and was loosely based on it. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/34 "2016-01-25T15:49:51Z")
Can’t go wrong with early Heinlein. Currently rereading “Double Star”. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/35 "2016-01-26T13:58:59Z")
If we stick to acclaimed classics that just happen to be short… Animal Farm by George Orwell A Room of Ones Own by Virginia Woolf The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie By Muriel Spark The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wildet ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/36 "2016-01-26T14:38:39Z")
I read Michael Chabon’s Sherlock Holmes pastiche, _The Final Solution_, in one evening – the paperback version is only 131 pages. If you haven’t read _The Martian_ by Andy Weir yet, I’d certainly suggest that. It’s outside the scope of your 200-page limit, but I read that in about eight hours. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/37 "2016-01-26T14:42:24Z")
Too late to edit – whenever I want to enhance my books-read-per-year count and/or am feeling blue, I always reach for P.G. Wodehouse and in particular his Jeeves and Wooster novels. They read lightning-fast, and they make my day brighter. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/38 "2016-01-26T14:44:17Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > If you like crime/detective novels Yeah, if you want to read a lot of books quickly, a series of short crime/detective novels would be a good bet—like Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books, or Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/39 "2016-01-27T00:27:39Z")
Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is quite short. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071/40 "2016-01-27T01:23:28Z")
There is an American writer named O. Henry. I would guess you have heard of him. He mostly wrote short stories. But I recall that some of his stories were much, much longer than others. One story I remember as being extremely funny and entertaining was, “The Ransom of Red Chief”. If you are looking for longer stories, perhaps you might like to read a few of his short stories instead of one big novel? In that way, if you don’t like one of them, you might still enjoy some of the others. Here is a list of several of his stories ranked in order from best to worst. I see that “Ransom of Red Chief” is ranked number four. > **[The Best O. Henry Stories](https://www.ranker.com/list/best-o-henry-stories/ranker-books)** > > The absolute best O. Henry stories of all time, ranked by the community's votes. This list has the most popular stories written by American writer O. Henry, and includes related images and first published information as well. O. Henry, the pen name... I also really enjoyed The Gift of the Magi. It was ranked number one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-short-novels/744071.md?page=3)