I'm looking for a book that I can pick up, read for 5-15+ minutes at a time, and finish the story or snippet in that sitting. I keep a book at my in-law's house so when I get bored I don't resort to doom scrolling on social media, and instead read a little snippet of something then put it back down (which is also better behavior modeling for my toddler than doom scrolling). I might go months between visits, so I can't do short chapters of a connected story. My current book is a Lydia Davis short story collection (often 1-3 pages long). But I'd be open to anything even graphic novels or national geographic or art books. Only thing is it's got to be something light and easy to handle, not a big coffee table book. I've only got a few short stories left, and if I don't get a replacement I might find myself trapped at my in-laws with nothing to read!
by TemporaryWinter6213
2 Comments
Sounds like what you’re looking for is flash fiction! That’s stories under 1000 words. I don’t have any off the top of my head but if you go to your local bookstore and ask for flash fiction collections they can probably find some fun ones for you.
For me, the type of book I go to for very quick reads are comic strip collections. My favorites are Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot. Peanuts and the Far Side are also great, but there’s countless others out there. Comic strips are meant to be consumed in under a minute each, so a book full of them is perfect for reading in snatches of several minutes.
Here’s some of my favourite books of short stories:
* Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I’m reading this now and it’s great. There is one longer story (novella?) in it, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, but the others are all pretty short. These are sci fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction.
* Stories of Your Life and Others, also by Ted Chiang
* Of Tales and Enigmas by Minsoo Kang. Also a book of mostly fairly short stories. These are a mix of fantasy, historical fiction, and magical realism.
* New Suns 2 by Nisi Shawl. The best anthology I have ever read with each story written by a different author. Sci fi and fantasy.
* We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow by Margaret Killjoy. I think this is longer than the others, but that’s because there’s a lot of stories in it. They’re all still short.