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.
For you, I’d suggest ‘I, Robot,’ by Isaac Asimov.
It’s a short story collection with a bunch of logic puzzles. the writing is clear and easy to follow and the conundrums are engaging.
Asimov is so, so good. I first got into him by reading his collection of short stories Robot Dreams. It’s really approachable, and because it’s all short stories there’s no long term commitment or sense of letdown if you decide to stop reading halfway through the book.
Sally was particularly interesting (though not the best story in the book). I was working at a self driving car startup when I read it, and it was amazing that in 1954 Asimov predicted robotaxis that we were trying to build.
I’m sure he’s happy somewhere, knowing people are still enjoying his writing.
If we’re doing short stories, I have two recommendations:
- Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others.
- Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House.
I’ve only read Ted Chiang’s exhalation, but one of the stories was the biggest thinker I’ve seen, and another was an emotional gut punch (in a good way)
The ratio of lasting impact to content length of his short stories is insane. He has no business having such compelling works being readable in a lunch break.
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.
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.
The Locked Tomb series is refreshing. It’s weird, it’s fun, it’s dark, and it’s trash, but it’s trash that the author is having fun with.
Discworld is also just amazing
murderbot series is fantastic, I love every single entry in the series so far, and they’re not very long or unnecessarily complicated; you can finish one in a day or two easy.
The first entry is called “All systems red”
The End of Eternity (Asimov) might be short enough for you, and has some interesting ideas about the implications of time travel.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is the most impactful book I’ve ever read. It completely changed my perspective of the system I was born into. A Farewell to Arms is the first book I read that mirrored my inner emotional state, and let me know it was okay for me to feel as I did back then. Both are top-tier books.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It and its sequel Children of Ruin both explore what it means to be a person and makes you feel empathy for “the other”, beings that get more and more alien as the story moves on. Compared to most of what others mention here it is rather new. But it will become a cult classic, I am certain of that.
That’s a great series. I recommended the first book to everyone I know after reading it. For another amazing story of compassion that circles around from everything from horror, to Kant, to AI intelligence, to religious extremism before it gets there, read The Hyperion Cantos.
Currently half way through the last of the 4 (Rise of Endymion) … fantastic series!
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 just the book for you!.. Ah, finish in a day, nevermind.
Best? Hard to say. But favorite?
Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick. It’s quite short, like many of his books, and you could absolutely knock it out in a day.
I don’t know…I read a lot of good books often.
I guess you could say my options are booked.
Roadside Picnic. it’s a story of unmanaged survivors guilt, in an increasingly desperate and accurately depicted Soviet dystopia, where the players hustle and vie for mediocre survival even in an exceptionally bizarre, hostile, and literally alien environment, just as they would in any other terrestrial conflict zone.
There’s a good reason it spawned an epic film and 4 outstanding games so far
Someone else already suggested it, but I would second Terry Pratchett. Even though most of the books are standalone, I recommend start with the Colour of Magic and follow publication order.
And the entire collection is on sale right now.
$18 for all 39 books.
Another vote for Pratchett! I’m an economics fan, and making money happened to be my introduction, but there are far more common onramps.
My personal suggestion for getting a feel of Pratchett’s writing these days is monstrous regiment - technically in the discworld series, but it’s very standalone, so you get the flavor of the writing with little of the need for additional context.
