I have a small attention span so when I try reading something I think I'll like I discover, much to my chagrin, that it's 400+ pages. So does anyone know any well written short stories/novels, around 200 pages max? I do not particularly favor any genre over another, but I simply loath fantasy or anything dealing with dragons and magic.
Fuck you, man.
>>1
Poe, Lovecraft. Usually their books are short stories compilations.
E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops
http://brighton.ncsa.uiuc.edu/prajlich/forster.html
Phillip K. Dick has a whole mess of short story collections out. Some of his stuff is pretty campy, though, even for sci-fi.
Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick is pretty good. Some camp, some fluff, but lots of genuinely good stories, too. It helps to keep in mind that PKD wrote most of his work on amphetamines when reading him.
Hemingway is pretty much my go-to writer for short stories. I haven't found a bad Hemingway short story yet. His novels? Different story.
Jorge Luis Borges is probably totally up your alley if you like Poe, Lovecraft, PKD, Kafka and that ilk.
Lastly,
>>6
So prescient. So good.
Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory is pretty good. Funny, quirky little novel about a child serial killer chock full of weirdness and black (well, grey and black) humor. It's something like 180 pages, so just under the maximum.
i never seen better than david copperfielf or perfume a story of a murder
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Isaac Asimov has some good short stories. His essays are rather worthwhile too.
Ray Bradbury.
Saul Bellow's 'Looking for Mr. Green' might resonate with you, particularly if you are American. His short novel Seize the Day is an absolute masterpiece.
>>16
# The Garden of Diverging Paths by Borges
Thats one good novel u got!
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Wasp Factory and the Camus novel mentioned above are both excellent too.
Pick up Books of Blood by Clive Barker. Barker is an amazing author, and his short stories infamously focus on the macabre. Hellbound Heart, also by Barker, is very short, but very gruesome, metaphysical, and entertaining (it was the basis for Hellraiser).
And after you read those, pick up Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Don't let the title put you off-- it's fucking great. I second the aforementioned Kurt Vonnegut book, Slaughterhouse V. He's got a great writing style.
Nada del Otro Mundo, a collection of short stories by Antonio Muñoz Molina
Celephaïs by H. P. Lovecraft, very very short!
Then proceeed to H. P. Lovecraft, Kafka, but no Poe!
By this time you should know what to read!
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, the first short story in that, Guts, it will make you want to faint.
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
Anything by John Wyndham (if you like scifi)
A Universal History of Iniquity--Borges
The plays of Henrik Ibsen
Alfred & Emily--Doris Lessing
"The Metamorphosis" by Kafka. Try Lovecraft, but I found it bitter and tasteless; though only through a lack of horror.
Yes Lovecraft is an amazing author.
If you are going to read Lovecraft, only read the short stories. Some of them are masterpieces. I read quite a few and then decided to read one of his novels. The novels are bumfucking boring. Stay clear of them.
The Farming of Bones- Edwidge Danticat
Comfort Woman
Under the Feet of Jesus (not a religious book)
If you read Spanish
Bella y Oscura by Rosa Montero
Te trataré como a una reina by Rosa Montero
El cuarto de atrás by Carmen Martin Gaite
If you can get yourself to open the first page, Wally Lamb (I think) has a book called I know this much is true. It is HUGE, but I promise if you get through the first page the book will bring you the rest of the way through.
an occurrence at owl creek bridge
an occurrence at owl creek bridge Ambrose Bierce
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut.