Suggestions for Short Stories/Novels (31)

1 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-14 23:02 ID:UAOsqJAh

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.

2 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-15 00:10 ID:5oPd2XWA

And then >>1 was a hobgoblin.

3 Name: R.A. Salvatore : 2008-05-20 00:35 ID:Heaven

>>1

Fuck you, man.

4 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-20 23:32 ID:HyucBmu/

>>1
Poe, Lovecraft. Usually their books are short stories compilations.

5 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-22 22:20 ID:Heaven

Kafka

6 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-25 21:11 ID:8OPBv5uY

7 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-26 20:54 ID:UFJ2AXMO

Phillip K. Dick has a whole mess of short story collections out. Some of his stuff is pretty campy, though, even for sci-fi.

8 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-27 05:56 ID:p0XVPQ9M

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.

9 Name: Bookworm : 2008-05-27 06:00 ID:p0XVPQ9M

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.

10 Name: chamseddine gherissi sbeitla : 2008-06-09 00:48 ID:G/S9Ede8

i never seen better than david copperfielf or perfume a story of a murder

11 Name: Bookworm : 2008-06-09 03:55 ID:N7tb9sgd

The Stranger by Albert Camus

12 Name: Bookworm : 2008-06-09 13:08 ID:7ht2wVuj

>>1
Stop being a pussy and read some Tolstoy

13 Name: Bookworm : 2008-06-12 06:45 ID:sAnbrjEq

Isaac Asimov has some good short stories. His essays are rather worthwhile too.

14 Name: Bookworm : 2008-06-23 11:05 ID:H7jA27xv

Ray Bradbury.

15 Name: Bookworm : 2008-06-23 14:32 ID:Heaven

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 Name: Bookworm : 2008-07-01 08:31 ID:OOmF/TAI

  • Where are you going, where have you been? by Joyce Carol Oates
  • Sleep by Murakami Haruki
  • Yorick by Salman Rushdie
  • In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka
  • Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Garden of Diverging Paths by Borges

17 Name: Bookworm : 2008-07-15 14:55 ID:ygbYtuKj

>>16
# The Garden of Diverging Paths by Borges

Thats one good novel u got!

18 Name: Bookworm : 2008-07-16 21:49 ID:J5E6xMUA

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Wasp Factory and the Camus novel mentioned above are both excellent too.

19 Name: Bookworm : 2008-07-23 05:20 ID:3eOnbPoD

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.

20 Name: Jose : 2009-01-14 22:53 ID:TTAGwIr5

Nada del Otro Mundo, a collection of short stories by Antonio Muñoz Molina

21 Name: Bookworm : 2009-01-17 01:18 ID:bkQlk9oz

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!

22 Name: Bookworm : 2009-01-19 16:50 ID:ThZHIUiM

>>21
Poe is great. Also, Guy de Maupassant.

23 Name: Bookworm : 2009-01-19 22:33 ID:M8MJcaBW

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, the first short story in that, Guts, it will make you want to faint.

24 Name: Bookworm : 2009-01-24 19:08 ID:ZUw5Esg4

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

25 Name: Meat : 2009-01-27 05:24 ID:sZJwKNmL

"The Metamorphosis" by Kafka. Try Lovecraft, but I found it bitter and tasteless; though only through a lack of horror.

26 Name: AnonymousMan7 : 2009-02-08 06:09 ID:enS/uppI

Yes Lovecraft is an amazing author.

27 Name: Talentless Troll : 2009-02-23 04:15 ID:s911hDVL

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.

28 Name: Bookworm : 2009-03-17 09:17 ID:HYKR9Bp1

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.

29 Name: Bookworm : 2009-08-31 17:49 ID:Kfq7CjXp

an occurrence at owl creek bridge

30 Name: Bookworm : 2009-08-31 17:50 ID:Kfq7CjXp

an occurrence at owl creek bridge Ambrose Bierce

31 Name: Bookworm : 2009-09-01 04:46 ID:nRfyvIFj

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut.

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