9 short books you can finish in a weekend

Sometimes the best cure for a reading slump is the simple satisfaction of finishing something. These nine short books — most under 250 pages — pack a full punch into a weekend’s reading.

1. Of Mice and Men — John Steinbeck

A perfect, devastating little novel you can read in an afternoon.

2. The Old Man and the Sea — Ernest Hemingway

Spare, elemental, and unforgettable. Hemingway at his most distilled.

3. Convenience Store Woman — Sayaka Murata

Strange, funny, and quietly radical. A quick, singular read.

4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle — Shirley Jackson

Gothic, eerie, and delicious. The ideal one-sitting unsettler.

5. The Stranger — Albert Camus

Short, cool, and endlessly discussable. A philosophy seminar in 120 pages.

6. Animal Farm — George Orwell

A fable that still bites. You’ll finish it in a sitting and think about it for weeks.

7. Train Dreams — Denis Johnson

A whole American life in a hundred luminous pages. Quietly perfect.

8. The Body — Stephen King

The novella behind Stand By Me — nostalgic, moving, and brisk.

9. Breasts and Eggs? Start smaller: So Long, See You Tomorrow — William Maxwell

A slim, aching masterpiece about memory and regret. Under 150 pages.

Beat the slump

Short books are perfect for trading — read three in the time one doorstopper would take, then swap them for credit. Browse our shelves, or tell the Matchmaker you want something short and powerful. For more on beating a slump, see our guide to building a reading habit.