Reading path
Under 200 Pages
Proof that brevity and greatness are not opposites. Every one of these can be read in a day or two, and several will stay with you for decades. Short books carry a different kind of power: nothing is wasted, nothing is filler, and the impact arrives before you have time to brace for it. If you have ever been intimidated by the size of the canon, start here. The smallest books on this list hit the hardest.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. The MetamorphosisFranz Kafka, 1915
- 2. The StrangerAlbert Camus, 1942
- 3. Animal FarmGeorge Orwell, 1945
- 4. The Old Man and the SeaErnest Hemingway, 1952
- 5. SiddharthaHermann Hesse, 1922
- 6. CandideVoltaire, 1759
- 7. A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens, 1843
- 8. CathedralRaymond Carver, 1983
- 9. The Fall of the House of UsherEdgar Allan Poe, 1839
- 10. A Hunger ArtistFranz Kafka, 1922
- 11. Notes From the UndergroundFyodor Dostoevsky, 1864
- 12. The OvercoatNikolai Gogol, 1842
- 13. The NoseNikolai Gogol, 1836
- 14. Boule de SuifGuy de Maupassant, 1880
- 15. The KissAnton Chekhov, 1887
- 16. The Lady with the DogAnton Chekhov, 1899
- 17. Ward No. 6Anton Chekhov, 1892
- 18. The Death of Ivan IlyichLeo Tolstoy, 1886
- 19. A Good Man Is Hard to FindFlannery O'Connor, 1953
- 20. Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?Joyce Carol Oates, 1966
- 21. Gimpel the FoolIsaac Bashevis Singer, 1953
- 22. The DeadJames Joyce, 1914
- 23. Bezhin MeadowIvan Turgenev, 1851
- 24. First LoveIvan Turgenev, 1860
- 25. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis Stevenson, 1886
- 26. The LoverMarguerite Duras, 1984
- 27. Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad, 1899
- 28. A Vindication of the Rights of WomanMary Wollstonecraft, 1792
- 29. Death in VeniceThomas Mann, 1912
- 30. Sonny's BluesJames Baldwin, 1957
- 31. Les Enfants TerriblesJean Cocteau, 1929
- 32. The Little PrinceAntoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943
- 33. The Call of the WildJack London, 1903
- 34. The AlchemistPaulo Coelho, 1988
- 35. Peter And WendyJ.M. Barrie, 1911
- 36. So Long a LetterMariama Bâ, 1980
- 37. The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieMuriel Spark, 1961
- 38. The Journalist and the MurdererJanet Malcolm, 1990
- 39. Lady SusanJane Austen, 1871
- 40. Billy BuddHerman Melville, 1924
- 41. Daisy MillerHenry James, 1878
- 42. TyphoonJoseph Conrad, 1902
- 43. The Summer BookTove Jansson, 1972