short reads for short attention spans
reading recommendations for short novels and anthologies
I don’t plan on being too formal in speech or tone or grammar with this list, or plan on easing you into this read the way I normally do. I’d like to point out something obvious: nowadays, everybody has such fried attention spans that even reading five pages of a book is worth falling asleep over. So, I’ve compiled a list of short novels and anthologies that are waiting for you to take interest in. Add these to your shopping cart or ongoing TBR list on goodreads, the decision is up to you.Â
⋆˙⟡ Novels ✧˖°.
Starting off strong, we have Caleb Nelson’s Open Water coming in at 164 pages. If you’re an enjoyer of prose, illustrious imagery, and overall poetic writing, then this is the book for you. This novel falls under drama fiction as you follow the story of an unnamed photographer and dancer in their complicated love affair. Even though this sounds romantic it’s not the focal point of this story. There is important commentary on toxic masculinity, racism, black masculinity, male friendships, and what it feels like to be a black man in present day England. It’s my most tabbed book in my collection to this day.
Even though this novel comes in at 180 pages, Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station does an amazing job at abstracting grief into hazy imagery. This novel discusses loss, complicated family relations, and the long term ramifications of unresolved generational trauma. If you have any unresolved traumas relating to family, I suggest booking an appointment after you finish reading –or a couple of them for the duration of your reading if it makes you self reflect.Â
Are you tired of people in your life asking you do you have a boyfriend? A girlfriend? Are you going to get your masters?Are you going to have kids? Well this is the perfect book if you’re over hearing those things. A funny and quirky 163 pages about Keiko Furukura who works in a convenience store in Tokyo, Japan. She’s content with her life as a convenience store worker but everyone else in her life expects more for her: a 9 to 5, marriage, and kids. A great commentary on the societal expectations people place on others but also themselves. Â
If you like Interview with the Vampire (2022 version of course), Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu is the novel for you. This is probably the thinnest book I’ve held in a while, as it only has 144 pages. It’s your classic vampire story, but with some underlying sapphic tones. The editing done by Carmen Maria Machado makes this a fairly simple read and isn’t difficult to get through either. Thematically it’s your classic gothic novel with heavy usage of fog, Carmilla and Laura’s desire being in the dark a metaphor for women’s intentionally repressed desires, and undying devotion in women friendships that totally don’t have any underlying homoerotic tension.Â
⋆˙⟡Anthologies ✧˖°.
Hear me out on the length of these upcoming recommendations. They may not technically qualify as short reads but none of the stories overlap –so if you stop reading and return to the book a month later, you don’t have to worry about needing a refresher by reading the previous chapter. The next couple of recommendations are collections of short stories and not full length novels: anthologies, essentially. Even though some of these are lengthier than others, each story, or essay, can be read alone Â
A series of short stories that wraps itself at 226 pages, deals with the complexities of moving on and letting go in both romantic and platonic relationships –and in a surreal way. From having one night stands with Yetis to taking anti gravity invisibility drugs, these stories have clear meanings to the chaos of the metaphors they are set up in.
Clocking in at 294 pages is Ottessa Moshfegh’s Homesick For Another World. This was more of an interesting than fun read. You follow varying protagonists, all of them unlikable, and their daily routines as the awful unredeemable people you read them to be. If you’re in the mood for some unserious short stories with unlikable characters then this is the book for you.Â
If you’ve been meaning to get into some classic literature but don’t want to commit to a full novel yet, this is the perfect start for you. This collection holds all of Poe’s short stories, as well as other essays he’s written. As someone that has been slowly reading their way through gothic literati, this was a nice start. His classics like The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell Tale Heart are in here, while other not as notable stories and writings are in here. Death and transformation is the thread that ties all of these stories together thematically. This book is 463 pages, but keep in mind the contents.
If you want to start delving into Didion’s work, I’d start with her first novel –which is 256 pages. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a study on America’s west and all of the eclectic, arguably fascinating, people and stories found there. I found it to be a calming read, her writing is descriptive, imaginative, yet straight to the point in storytelling –definitely a result of her journalistic background as a writer.Â
Well, I hope you enjoy all these reads in the event you choose to pick them up. These are all free to read online as well (if you know where to look). If you have read any of them, please comment your thoughts and critiques because I would love to know your ideas about any of these. And, if you end up reading one of these, please come back and comment your thoughts on what these stories had to say and whether or not it invoked something in you. Anyways, I hope you all have an amazing day and rest of your week!
With care,Â
AlyssaÂ
Links for all books: Open Water / Tokyo Ueno Station / Convenience Store Woman / Carmilla / Bliss Montage / Homesick for Another World / The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe / Slouching Towards Bethlehem