Short Books to Read in a Day: Novellas and Essays Under 160 Pages
Short books that fit into one afternoon or one long evening, from novellas to a famous essay. Most run to about 160 pages or fewer. Every book here is in the Tori catalog, and each line says why it fits.
Modern and classic novellas
1952The Old Man and the SeaErnest Hemingway
Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulAn old fisherman hooks a giant marlin.
1937Of Mice and MenJohn SteinbeckLiterary Fiction · MelancholicTwo migrant workers and their dream of a farm of their own.
1945Animal FarmGeorge Orwell
Classics · DarkThe mistreated animals of Manor Farm rebel against their human owner, hoping to build a fairer society.
1911Ethan FromeEdith WhartonClassics · MelancholicA farmer in a bleak Massachusetts winter is drawn to his wife's young cousin.
1956Seize the DaySaul BellowClassics · MelancholicOne day in New York in the life of a man who is running out of options.
1922SiddharthaHermann HesseClassics · ThoughtfulA young man in ancient India leaves home to look for peace and meaning.
1899Heart of DarknessJoseph ConradClassics · DarkCharles Marlow recounts his steamboat journey up an African river to find the ivory trader Kurtz.
1759CandideVoltaireClassics · LightVoltaire's satire follows a naive young man on a string of misadventures.
1954Bonjour TristesseFrançoise SaganClassics · MelancholicA teenager and her father spend a summer on the French Riviera, and everything changes.
1958Breakfast at Tiffany’sTruman CapoteLiterary Fiction · WarmA young New York socialite and her writer neighbour.
1913O Pioneers!Willa Cather
Historical Fiction · WarmA Swedish girl, a Bohemian immigrant and the Nebraska prairie.
Quiet, powerful short fiction
2021Small Things Like TheseClaire KeeganHistorical Fiction · MelancholicA coal merchant in 1985 Ireland.
1980So Long, See You TomorrowWilliam MaxwellLiterary Fiction · MelancholicA man looks back fifty years to a killing in his Illinois hometown and to a friend he failed.
1979OffshorePenelope FitzgeraldLiterary Fiction · WarmLondoners live on houseboats on the Thames at Battersea Reach.
2011The Sense of an EndingJulian BarnesLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulA retired man receives a mysterious bequest that makes him reexamine his school friendships.
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips1933Goodbye, Mr. ChipsJames HiltonClassics · Warm
A schoolmaster’s life at an English boarding school.
1958Mrs. ’Arris Goes to ParisPaul GallicoLiterary Fiction · WarmA London cleaning lady dreams of a Dior dress.
Ghosts, tales and adventures
- A Christmas Carol1843A Christmas CarolCharles DickensClassics · Warm
A miser is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve.
1886Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis StevensonClassics · DarkA respectable doctor and his violent double.
1898The Turn of the ScrewHenry JamesClassics · DarkA governess and two children, and the ghosts who may haunt them.
- A Christmas Memory
True stories and essays
2014We Should All Be FeministsChimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Nonfiction · HopefulChimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short essay on what feminism means today.
197084, Charing Cross RoadHelene HanffNonfiction · WarmLetters between a New York writer and a London bookseller.
1997The Diving Bell and the ButterflyJean-Dominique BaubyNonfiction · MelancholicA man paralysed by a stroke writes a book by blinking one eye.