stack of 3 books plus open book with pen. Title: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Lots of Lists of Books You Can Read in One Day


Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Here’s how it works: Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic for each Tuesday. If you check this link, you’ll find she’s assigned topics for several future weeks so you can plan ahead. She adds, “create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list . . . Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you!”

Each week Jana posts a Linky on her blog where you can (if you want) share a link to your post and check out other bloggers’ posts.


The suggested Top Ten Tuesday topic for today is Books on My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List. I find no point in doing this topic because, once I’ve composed and posted it, I never look at it again. I do set up a tentative reading list at the beginning of each month, but even that is subject to change on a daily basis.

Instead, I’m going to continue with the topic I started last week, Books You Can Read in One Day, to help you achieve this year’s reading goal. Last week I offered you a list of short books. This week, I’m offering a big list of short-book lists.

10 Short, Thought-Provoking Reads for Book Club

From Off the Shelf, from the PR division of Simon & Schuster.

9 Short Books for the Shortest Day of the Year

From last year’s (2021) winter solstice comes this list of super-short books: The longest is 128 pages. Another positive feature of this list is its inclusion of poetry.

25 Classic Crime Books You Can Read in an Afternoon

“Terse, Atmospheric Brilliance in Under 200 Pages”

10 Short, Fast-Paced Books to Kickstart Your Yearly Reading Goal

This list came out back in January to help get a headstart on the year’s reading goal, but I see no reason not to include it here. Susie Dumond features books under 300 pages.

Short Crime Fiction You Can Devour in One Sitting

Works “short enough to read in one sitting but long enough to hook readers.”

5 short reads for the shortest month of the year

BookPage put this list together for February, but why not use it now if you need it?

The Best Books Under 200 Pages

This article contains an added bonus: links to several similar lists at the bottom of the page.

Short Sci-Fi Novellas

“Novellas are usually categorized as a piece of fiction that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words,” writes Rachel Brittain, author of this list. But, as Brittain points out, translating this word count into a page count can be misleading because short works are often printed in large type on pages with lots of white space in order to make the finished product look more like a proper book. So a couple of the entries in this list come in at a bit more than 200 pages, but they should nonetheless be readable in a single day.

10 Books You Can Read in One Day

This list by book blogger Diana offers an international selection.

12 Short Reads for the Longest Day of the Year

BookBub compiled this list for the longest day of the year, which, in the northern hemisphere, was June 21. There’s no page length specified here: “If you’re looking for a book you can read in a single sitting, check out our list of new short books for the longest day of 2022 — including heartwarming romance, humorous nonfiction, fast-paced suspense, and more.”

You Can Read Any of These Short Novels in a Weekend

From The Atlantic.

“Some breathtakingly brief novels are among the best English literature has to offer (think Giovanni’s Room, or Wide Sargasso Sea). The form concentrates language and plot so tightly that rereading is a pleasure,” writes Bethanne Patrick. However, she never explicitly defines the term short novel. Since many similar lists are labeled “books you can read in one day,” I suspect some of Patrick’s suggestions may be a bit longer, since you’ll need the weekend to read them.

88 Short New Books to Help You Crush Your 2022 Reading Challenge

From Goodreads: “The books here are all published within the past five years in the U.S. and the list is divided into two sections: books with fewer than 200 pages, and books with fewer than 300 pages.”

© 2022 by Mary Daniels Brown

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