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Things wordy, geeky, and webbyShort, Powerful and Favorite Books
Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 9:09 AM |
Inspired by the short books that helped me get my reading groove back, I asked others what are their favorite books with no more than 200 pages. If you need a jump start to get back into reading or need a short read, here’s your list of books to check out.
I looked up those new to me and already have them on my “rent from the library” list. Since these are short, I plan to get them soon after I catch up on a couple of longer books I need to review. I’d let them cut in line, but I’ve already let too many books skip ahead in line.
Yes, a couple go a little beyond 200, but not much and they’re superb suggestions. Apologies for all the links — need to credit others and make it easy for you to look up the books.
jmcnally: Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke.
mikeandthemoms: I’m going to go with two – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (I think it’s under 200) and The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway.
GeekMommy: under 200 pages? either Anthem by Ayn Rand or Mimi the Merry Go Round Cat by Dorothy Haas. Both have shaped my mind.
yarnmaven: The Weblog Handbook by Rebecca Blood. Everything else I read is much longer or a knitting magazine.
bradshorr: Hard to pick one … this hits me at the moment Eugenics and Other Evils. On a totally different tack – Woody Allen Getting Even. Also C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories
CathLawson: The Richest Man In Babylon
guykawasaki: If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland.
Alison Law: I really loved Shopgirl by Steve Martin (144 pgs. according to Amazon.com). Looking forward to your list!
Gloria Chen: Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up
Linda Kamin: On Chesil Beach
Marsha: Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life
Charles Bohannan: The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
In the Land of Pain, Alphonse Daudet
The Last Opium Den, Nick Tosches
Embers, Sandor Marai
Literature and the Gods, Roberto Calasso
The Devil’s Larder: A Feast, Jim Crace
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier, Thad Carhart
From Michael Michalowicz, the Toilet Paper Enterpreneur: Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength
The Stranger
Ray
Salvador
The Journalist and the Murderer
Desperate Characters: A Novel
And probably my favorite book, Jesus’ Son: Stories
Mark Macias suggests Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing Media (Excerpts available).
Gisela suggests:
From Bauhaus to Our House
Guide for the Perplexed
The Great Divorce
Meryl’s List
One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way: I started applying these ideas right away — before I finished the book. The author explains the science behind this in an interesting way.
Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists: All you need to know to become a better journalist.
QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life: Rather than doing what comes naturally for many of us and becoming defensive and pointing fingers, the book changes your mode of thinking from “It’s his fault” to “How can I fix this?”
The Holy Man: Each chapter tells a tale and teaches a lesson. However, in the big scheme of things, there’s progression from start to finish as a couple of characters appear throughout.
Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results: Four simple things to make work and home a great place to be.
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
My updated list of books read along[pdf] with their notes.
What other great books can you add to the list? What makes them special to you?
Updated: 22 April 2009
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20 comments
Hi Meryl, This was a super idea for a post. Can’t wait to check out a few of these titles.
Brad Shorr´s last blog post… 7-1/2 Reasons Why I Won’t Follow Someone on Twitter
Thank you, Brad! I hope the list will continue to grow over time. I think we all need quick books at times and want to spend the time on the right ones.
This is awesome! I did a post like this waay back in 2004 on my old blog. Here were my choices:
In the Land of Pain, Alphonse Daudet
The Last Opium Den, Nick Tosches
Embers, Sandor Marai
Literature and the Gods, Roberto Calasso
The Devil’s Larder, Jim Crace
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart
Jamie Grove – How Not To Write´s last blog post… Thoughts on a Writer’s Ab(s)
Jamie, thanks for adding your list. I love knowing about your books because you find the ones I’d never find on my own.
[...] Meryl K. Evans came up with a great idea – she’s compiling a list of short, powerful, and favorite books. Have any addtions? I’m sure she’d love to hear from [...]
Improv Wisdom bu Patricia Ryan Madson. It is a book full of practices and principles not just for improv, but for a full life.
A few more for your list. These books to me are indespensible:
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Ray by Barry Hannah
Fierce Attachments (memoir) Vivian Gornick
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Salvador by Joan Didion
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
The Soccer War by Ryzard Kapuscinski
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
and probably my favorite book, Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
Stephen Elliott´s last blog post… Zak Smith: The Last Book I Loved, Viriconium
Stephen, thanks for all those additions! I am not familiar with most — just the authors.
Excellent. Very Informative. Thank you for this post.
Short, Fast Books Worth Reading…
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[...] I’ve added The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur to my list of short and powerful reads. [...]
Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe
A Guide For The Perplexed, E.F. Schumacher
The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis
[...] from Twitter, you must interact meaningfully with others. This conversation lead to a wonderful post on great books with 200 pages or less. merylkevans: What’s the best short book [...]
[...] clicks this morning from my daily email from the positive news source, Ode Magazine, I came across Meryl Evans’ blog on “short books that helped me get my reading groove back,” where she asked others for [...]
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
As a former librarian, I think this is a great idea for a list!
I’d like to recommend a newish book called Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life by Zoe Weil (Beyond Words/Atria, 2009). Helping create a just, compassionate, sustainable world is really important to me, and Weil does a great job of offering a philosophy and several strategies for making choices that do the most good and least harm for all people, animals and the planet. I highly recommend it.
[...] Think Small to Go Big: Sales for the Small Business Professional: Don’t overwhelm yourself. Great book on topic of starting small for all aspects of our lives: One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. Short, fast read. More short fast reads? Check out Short, Powerful and Favorite Books. [...]
I am glad to see The Stranger on the list. My favorite book ever.
I also need to add a few of these books to my reading list! Site is now bookmarked!
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[...] Short, Powerful and Favorite Books (meryl.net)
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